TWO Quirindi families are targeting the growing market of coeliac and gluten-intolerant consumers.
Kurrajong Ridge partners Bruce and Susan Nixon, and Martin and Annette Wallis grow and mill sorghum, producing sorghum flour that is naturally gluten-free and can be used in place of wheat flour in most recipes.
Mr Nixon said the idea came about over a few beers, when the couples wanted to set up a business involving both young families.
“We were looking for better ways to make some money from our small blocks and wanted to find something that already grew in this area,” Mr Nixon said.
“We googled other purposes for sorghum, because we knew we wouldn’t have any problem growing sorghum in the area, and found it was gluten-free.
“We did a bit of research and couldn’t find any sorghum flour anywhere in Australia.”
White sorghum has all the same qualities of red sorghum and is just as easy to grow on the Liverpool Plains, but has a slightly lower yield.
“In Australia everyone just knows sorghum as a stock feed, but in India, sorghum flour is what they use for everything,” Mrs Nixon said.
The team started researching the product in 2010, but the business wasn’t set up until 2012.
“We bought a little kitchen mill and started milling sorghum, then did some test baking with it and decided it wasn’t bad at all,” Mr Nixon said.
“We took it to a few bakeries and they liked it, because bakers have to use a lot of different types of flour to imitate wheat flour.
“Sorghum fl our has better binding properties than other alternative flours, which you struggle to get in gluten-free baking, and a nicer, more wholesome flavour.”
Mr Nixon was in charge of the baking, which he said was trial and error.
“We’re not gluten-intolerant so it’s been a learning curve for us, but we’ve given it to a friend whose husband is gluten intolerant,” he said.
The families now produce white sorghum, which is more appealing to the consumer when milled.
“We’ve found that our flour is naturally sweet so you can cut your sugar back by a third to a half in your baking and not notice the difference,” Mr Nixon said.
“The tannins in red sorghum give it a slight bitterness, but the white sorghum is more neutral so it allows other flavours to sing in the recipe without overpowering anything.”
The families imported a stone mill from Austria and started production, but Mr Nixon said the gluten-free product had strict requirements.
“Our biggest concern was control over the product,” he said.
“Although sorghum itself is naturally gluten-free, the contamination issue was a big thing for us, so we don’t mill anything but sorghum, and every batch is tested to make sure there’s no gluten.”
The flour is sold online and in stores at Quirindi, Tamworth, Narrabri, Gunnedah, Willow Tree, Bellingen, Dorrigo and Mudgee.
