Yes.
I want to talk about four different variations of the gluten-free and local bakery markets and how I see them.
- Whole wheat.
- Gluten-free.
- Whole grains.
- Gluten-free ingredient products made in a gluten-filled environment.
To me, the last one is where customers are “Gluten-free By Choice” and it’s a very misunderstood market.
Whole wheat. This is what we do. And do very well. It is our signature space. Most of us are absolute fanatics for whole wheat. We are passionate, loving and proud of it and its gluten. And, most of that pride starts at the mill where we fresh mill our proprietary wheat into our own flour in each bread store each day. But, milling means flour dust, so…
True gluten-free is just not an easy option in a bakery milling fresh flour. The Gluten-free market really falls into three categories. True gluten-free. Gluten sensitive. And, Gluten-free By Choice. The first, true gluten-free, is about serving the person with celiac disease. This is someone who can be physically harmed by the slightest intake of gluten. Even trace elements. This is not a market for us and not one I want to ever try to approach because it isn’t fair to the celiac patient or us. Our registered dietitian wrote this helpful spotlight on celiac disease post that contains more information if you are interested in learning more.
I find the Gluten-free By Choice market segment interesting. It is one we can serve without risk in our fresh milled wheat environment and it is fun in that it lets us move into some of the other flours beyond whole wheat.
Whole grains. Wheat is one of many grains that can be milled into flour. We see the ever expanding awareness of other grains/things, such as quinoa and garbanzo beans/chickpeas, that make phenomenal breads as an opportunity. In our product development efforts, we are working with things from oats to yellow peas to quinoa to turn into flour to bake amazing breads and sweets but I choose quinoa and chick peas because we have a couple of amazing products based on those flours that are in the final stages of market testing that are close to being released. And, they are stunningly good.
One of the biggest problems with baked goods that claim to be gluten-free is they taste like, well, not awesome. And, anything we do has to taste amazing. We see the growth of this market as both a market opportunity and a fun challenge. Can we make alternative flour products that are from gluten-free ingredients and that taste amazing? Yes. We can and will.
What if we turned a gluten-free ingredient product made from something like garbanzo beans into a bread that tastes as amazing as our Dakota?
Now that would be something. But, this is how we see that market. Don’t ignore it but give it the same high quality, amazing taste products we do our whole wheat customers while remaining true to our standards:
- whole grains (not limited to whole wheat)
- bake phenomenal bread and
- run fast to serve others by providing a gluten free ingredient product while not endangering true celiacs.
I sure don’t expect the alternative grains market to dominate local bakeries, or Great Harvest bakeries in particular. Like everything else in the Freedom Franchise, people will have a choice. Some bakeries are already serving this market. Others will in the future. Some will always stay true to the whole wheat segment of our business. Such is the beauty of the Freedom Franchise.
