GROW Nebraska® Foundation and Buy Nebraska Blog

Article by Betty Sayers, Nebraska Rural Living March brought chill winds and gray skies, but the Rural Foodies wrapped up in fleece and headed down the road to Marquette, Nebraska, to glean facts about organic grains at Grain Place Foods. The north wind pushed us through the door and into the corporate office located at the Vetter farm, south of Marquette. Our senses were bombarded with the homespun smell of fresh grains. We were standing near the grain processing machines where tons of grain pour through cleaning, sorting and packaging machines in preparation for shipping to national and international markets. The warehouse smelled like a bread basket. David Vetter, the executive director of Grain Place Foods, Inc. was solving a packaging problem in the warehouse when we arrived, and I noticed a print-out of the Grain Place Foods mission statement on the entry wall: The Grain Place provides ecologically sustainable grain products that benefit the long-term health of our clients a...

Article by Sierra Forrest, Direct of Marketing & Sales, Simply Sunflower So many people ask, "how did Simply Sunflower begin?" That has to be one of my favorite questions to answer. I am extremely proud of our excellent product, but that doesn't compare to the pride I feel for my family - the roots which grew this company! We're a family business and family is right where our Simply Sunflower story began. From a humble beginning, my dad, Alan Koelling or Farmer Al as some people call him, started driving a tractor as soon as his feet could reach the pedals. His dad owned a farm and ranch near Ord, Nebraska that had been passed down from his father. The Koellings had come as immigrants from Germany and settled in Nebraska thanks to the Homestead Act of 1862. The original land and farming business has been in the Koelling family for the past 120 years! The soil is rich in history and heritage and our family has always been filled with pioneers and innovators....