BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - A wet spring delayed planting for one North Dakota farm family, but that hasn’t stopped them from taking their unique farming practices to make their dream of milling flour and making pasta a reality.

New blades of wheat poke through the soil at Kelly and DeAnna Lozensky’s farm just south of Minot. The farm runs with a natural approach.

“Our farming practices are a little bit different than some of the other conventional practices. A lot of people describe it as regenerative practices,” said DeAnna Lozensky, co-owner of Guardian Grains.

At the farm, there’s no tillage, seed treatments, or synthetic or organic fertilizer. DeAnna says it brings life back into the soil.

In April, the Lozensky’s realized they could do even more with their land. DeAnna takes their crops and brings them to the Tuttle Rural Innovation Center. That’s where she says the magic begins.

“The stars have aligned,” said DeAnna Lozensky.

“We put our whole grain into the hopper. It’s fed by an auger speed which we can control and then we control the level and the height of the stones so we can grind the flour either roughly to have more texture or finer,” said Lauren Duvall, production manager of Guardian Grains.

From the mill, the flour is mixed with water. It becomes a staple in many pantries: pasta.

“I wanted two very simple ingredients in our pasta. I wanted stone-milled flour which is full nutrition, there’s nothing extracted, and I wanted it to have water. Two simple ingredients and I couldn’t have that made anywhere else,” said DeAnna Lozensky.

“The nutrition, the actual base of it? It’s in the soil,” said Lauren Duvall.

They make three types of pasta: Guardian Grains’ macaroni, rotini, and radiatore.

It takes about 6 months to go from planting to pasta.

DeAnna Lozensky says the whole idea to make the Guardian Grains products started when someone on Facebook asked to buy just a little bit of flour. And what’s next? She says she hopes to bring better nutrition to North Dakota public schools. To learn more visit: Wheat Berries For Sale | Guardian Grains | United States

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