When it came to life on the frontier, pioneers relied heavily on foods crafted with whole grains and hearty ingredients to help them take on the day, build new lives, and continue their journeys. But when the days of the wagon trains came and went, many of those rustic food traditions were lost and replaced by a new wave of packaged goods like bread, cereals, and granola bars that were made using white or enriched wheat flour. Products like those quickly dominated store shelves and continue to today. But, sometime around 1994 in Salt Lake City, UT, a family set out to change that. It began with the matriarch, Penny, who approached her oldest son Jon who had a knack for business.

She proposed taking a family recipe for a whole grain baking mix, tweaking it for flapjacks, and building a brand around it.

So, that’s what Jon did.

There were many steps between but click to see how Jon took the first steps toward a new frontier of whole grains at the breakfast table and how he passed that on to his younger brother, Joel.