Locally-ground flour finds way into hand-crafted products by way of 'White Thumb Bakers Guild'

Matt Sehnert of Sehnert's Bakery, Ashley Einspahr of Wauneta Roller Mills, businesses coach and grant writer Sue Shaner and Valerie Paschall of Blue Colonial Inn and Prairie Harvest display the products available from the "White Thumb Bakers Guild," a new business that markets high-quality, hand-crafted products from four individual Southwest Nebraska businesses Not shown is guild member Sarah Risenhoover of Homespun.

McCOOK, Nebraska -- This is the wheat that the farmers grew.

This is the mill that ground the wheat.

This is the flour that the mill produced with the wheat that the farmers grew.

This is the stollen bread, and the granola bars, and the cookies and the banana bread that bakers baked with the flour that the mill produced with the wheat that the farmers grew.

This is the grant that Sue requested that created the bakers' guild that those with "White Thumbs" developed to market the stollen bread, granola bars and the cookies and the banana bread they bake.

The new "White Thumb Bakers Guild" will market through its new web site the stollen bread baked by Sehnert's Bakery and banana bread and two cookie varieties baked by Homespun, both of McCook; and granola and granola bars baked by the Blue Colonial Inn/Prairie Harvest, rural Trenton -- all of which use flour and cracked wheat milled by Wauneta Roller Mills in Wauneta.

The White Thumb Bakers Guild is a new business that markets high-quality products hand-crafted and offered by the four individual Southwest Nebraska businesses. Its creation started with business coach Sue Shaner, a USDA RBEG (a Rural Business Enterprise Grant) grant, and the McCook Economic Development Corporation's and the Keystone Business Center's mission to act as an incubator for new businesses.

"I knew I wanted to do something with Wauneta Roller Mills," Sue said. "I mean, really ... their products are better than anything you can buy."

The RBEG grant is providing the four businesses opportunities to look at new marketing strategies and to increase their sales, Sue said.

Products sold by the White Thumb Bakers Guild will be available only on their website: whitethumbbakers.com. Web designers are fine-tuning the web site -- watch for it coming soon.

Ashley Einspahr, who owns and operates Wauneta Roller Mills with her husband, Rogan, said the website will offer package options at three price points -- combinations of Sehnert's stollen bread, Prairie Harvest's granola and granola bars, Homespun's banana bread and cookies and WRM's flour and cracked wheat.

"The tie is Wauneta Roller Mills," Sue said, who, over the past 1 1/2 years, has written the grant and brought together WRM customers Sehnert's, Homespun and Prairie Harvest.

Matt said, "Wauneta Roller Mills is so unique. It's a blast from the past. We're using flour milled at the last family-owned mill in Nebraska ... flour made with locally-grown wheat."

Matt likes the combination and collaboration of the bakers. "The sum of the whole is bigger, and stronger, than the parts," he said. "None of us are cookie-cutter ... we're not pre-made. What we offer is something homemade ... made by hand. A little bit old-timey and wholesome."