Circle area farm diversifies with chickpea baking mixes

The Sikveland family farms peas, oats, wheat, lentils and chickpeas on their farm near Circle, Mont. The chickpeas are used to create the farm’s unique brand of gluten-free baking mixes and flours.

Chickpeas are a legume that most people consider a key ingredient for hummus or Indian dishes, but the Sikveland family near Circle, Mont., is presenting the crop as a gluten-free alternative for waffles, brownie mix, corn bread and other baking items. Their company, 41 Grains, markets via store outlets and online at 41grains.com.

The Sikveland family farms chickpeas along with yellow peas, oats, wheat and lentils on their farm that covers roughly 6,000 acres. Rex and Kacie Sikveland decided to start offering chickpea baking mixes and flours after having brownies made from chickpea flour at a friend’s house.

“We have a friend whose husband likes to bake and he made these brownies,” Kacie said. “It intrigued me. I grew up in a gluten-free household, so I was always helping mom cook and I know how hard that being gluten-free can be for people.”

At the time when Kacie started exploring offering chickpea options, she was also opening a boutique store on Main Street in Circle featuring “Made in Montana” products.

“We had extra space in the store, so we began to grow the chickpea business,” she said.

The family mills their chickpeas at the store and offers the product at various outlets in Montana, as well as shipping to online customers.

“We wanted to really have a farm-to-table product and handle every aspect of it ourselves,” Kacie said.

The store now features banana bread mix, two different cookie mixes, waffle and brownie mix along, with fish batter, flour, and a variety of other products.

She said the business aims to help convert the locally-grown grains into kitchen-ready products.

“Our goal is to take raw grains from our local farmers here in McCone County and turn it into nutritious flours and mixes that are custom-ready just for what anyone might need or want,” she said. “We’re always working to ensure that our grains and processes are as free of additives as possible.”

Challenges

Some of the challenges for the business include the remote location of the farm and store in eastern Montana.

“In eastern Montana, we struggle because resources are so far away,” Kacie said. “Especially getting our product to other markets is challenging, but we are currently working on a way to do that.”

Kacie said the farm has been working on building an eastern Montana food cooperative that would help share distribution costs among participating farmers.

“We just got this going in January and are planning on buying a trailer by the end of the year,” she said. “Our closest large markets are Great Falls and Billings, and for a small business, it can be hard to justify the cost of transport on smaller orders.”

Kacie said she is working with the Western Montana Growers Cooperative to help develop the eastern Montana version of a local distribution model.

She said demand for local products is continuing to grow as consumers want a different shopping experience.

“People are over a corporate, disconnected experience and want to know more about who they are buying from,” she said.

Kacie said she is actively looking for more farmer members to help grow the eastern Montana cooperative. She can be reached at 406-485-5341

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