This is the audio from our monthly radio show: Focus on Stafford County. The show aired liven March.Topics discussed include construction updates on Gray Photo, a museum room at the studio and apartment.Other topics include new housing projects, downtown historic district ini Stafford, book discussion on “`13 ways to kill your community” and update on potential future of Stafford Depot.
By Beccy Tanner
For 124 years, the Gray Photo Studio has overseen developments in downtown St. John.
Named after William R. Gray, the photographer who took photos in Stafford County for more than three-quarters of a century, the building has long been a landmark.
It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015, but efforts to restore the building has often been a struggle and, at times, seemed to drag to a standstill.
That’s about to change.
Much work has already taken place on the exterior of the building. Now, work is ready to begin on the interior.
Late last year, the photo studio formed a partnership with Stafford County Economic Development Inc. and received a $50,000 grant from Historic Economic Asset Lifeline (HEAL) grant. In addition, there was a matching $50,000 loan from SJN Bank of Kansas.
Still, Long said, more funding is needed.
An online art auction has been scheduled for March 29th and 30th.
When work is completed – expected by the end of 2024 – it will become the Art Center at Gray Photo studio.
“We are going to sheet rock, paint and restore the woodwork,” said Carol Long, president for the Gray Studio Restoration board. “We will start on the kitchen and the bathrooms will be completed. We have one bathroom done — but even having walls up will be nice.”
Ten artists from all over have donated pieces of their art to be auctioned. They include:
Carol Long, Delvin Goode, Steven Hill, Holly Hendrick, Linda Ganstrom, Mike Stumbras, Sheldon Ganstrom and Taylor Craig.
Long said they hope to raise at least $20,000 with the auction to furnish the studio with kitchen appliances, furniture and other items.
The auction will be held through the platform Givebutter where you can also find more information about the artists and the art they are auctioning. The auction will go live March 29th at 5 p.m. and go until March 30th at 11:59 p.m. Go to https://givebutter.com/c/grayphotostudio to get signed up and ready for the auction.
“You don’t have to buy a piece of art to donate to our auction,” Long said. “You can just donate and help us match our funds.”
Local residents, Long said, can also donate to the fund through SJN Bank of Kansas by dropping off a check or mailing it to the bank at 116 E 3rd Ave., St. John, Ks. 67576 and putting Gray Photo Studio in the check memo.
Long said she is hopeful to have the studio open for visitors to view the building’s progress during town’s annual Jubilee celebration held Memorial Day weekend.
Renovation work isn’t expected to be completed by then – but it will give people a chance to chart the building’s progress.
William Gray took photos of almost every family in Stafford County from 1905 to 1947. He did so using wet plate photography and glass negatives. In Stafford, the history museum there has his collection of more than 30,000 glass negatives.
One of the most distinctive things about the building is the huge window that’s part of the building’s roof on the north side. It allowed for wonderful lighting in Gray’s photos.
Long gave credit for the building’s latest renovation efforts and funding to Stafford County Economic Development.
“If Ryan Russell (director of Stafford County’s Economic Development) hadn’t stepped forward and contracted with us to do all this fundraising and grant writing, we probably wouldn’t be moving this quickly,” Long said.
“So, with Eco Devo pushing us forward, we are going to finish this in 2024.”
By Beccy Tanner
Four years ago, Glora Batten started her journey into canning.
A friend asked her to come over to their house and help can pickles.
“We got started and made a batch of pickles and I just thought it was very fun,” the 29-year-old St. John woman said.
That moment started her thinking about the possibilities of canning more foods.
Soon, she had created an array of jams and jellies, pickles, relishes, and syrups.
Currently, Batten says she is in a canning hiatus.
Her youngest daughter, Charlotte, was born last June and is taking much of Batten’s daily attention.
But she is hopeful to get back into the full canning swing later this spring where she can offer sometimes as many as 30 different varieties of items.
When she does, Batten said she plans on using the new commercial kitchen in the Stafford County Annex.
“I have filled up my dining room table laying down jars and canning equipment,” she said. “I always go through a deep cleaning before I make anything, so it will be nice to walk into a nice, clean kitchen (at the Stafford County Annex) and just simply get the process going.”
Her business is called Preserved Goodness and she sells all over Central Kansas – Salina, Hutchinson, Wichita and Great Bend — and on Facebook.
“I’ve done a lot of pop-up markets over the last couple of years,” she said. “And I’ve been invited to sell products in a couple of stores and in different small businesses … I’ve always enjoyed cooking. I have a good friend. Her name is Phyllis, and she runs Dilly and Doc (a creative studio in Great Bend). She kept telling me I should have a booth with my jams and jellies.
“I didn’t think I had the audacity to do such a thing. I kept telling her so. And then, I went down in my basement after a day of canning, and I realized that I had filled up an entire room with probably 400 to 500 jars of jelly.”
Batten and her husband, Shawn, have four girls – Talley, 10; Rebekah, 4; Savannah, 3; and Charlotte, 7 months.
“My oldest daughter likes to do lemonade stands at the farmers markets,” Batten said. “This summer, I am hoping to go with her and have a few jellies to sell. And then, we will start back up doing random pop-up markets this fall.”
Until then, Batten said she can take small orders with advance notice.
She makes pepper jams, sandhill plum jelly, mulberry and blackberry jams. She has traditional flavors of jams and then, some not so traditional – think chocolate strawberry, blueberry-strawberry, carrot cake, monkey butters and tropical jams.
She sells half pint jars, typically around $7 each.
“Anything that looks fun, I usually try.”
To check out Glora’s business, see Preserved Goodness Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/preserved_goodness .
By Beccy Tanner
Two teams and four St. John High School students are the county winners in this year’s Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge.
Ryer Ward, placed first in the contest, which was held Feb. 7 at the Stafford County Annex.
He receives $750 and a chance to compete at the state competition on April 16th at Kansas State University in Manhattan.
His entry was called “The Pocket Shop” and details a business that would make breakfast rolls or pockets with filling.
Second place winners are Garrett McAlister, Willow Murphy, and Uricke Engelbrecht for their entry of “Unraveling Fibers.” Their business would include a subscription service for crocheting and needlework projects.
They receive $500 and have a chance at applying to be a wild card team in the statewide contest.
To participate, students must submit an executive summary of a business proposal and do an in-person presentation.
Each team is then judged on their business’s marketability, niche, and ability to grow their company as well as model.
This year’s judges included: Lea Ann Seiler, from Network Kansas; Trisha Greene, 21st Central District K-State Extension; Angela Peterson, St. John-Hudson USD 350 elementary principal; and Ryan Russell, director of Stafford County Economic Development.
Stafford County Economic Development with funding from South Central Community Foundation hosted the local YEC competition and sponsors the students to attend the state-wide competition.
EcoDevo is a 501c3 nonprofit organization with a mission to promote economic and population growth throughout the county by assisting local businesses, engaging in community activities, and promoting Stafford County as a great place to live, work, and play.
This is the audio from our monthly radio show: Focus on Stafford County. This show aired live Thursday, Jan. 25. Topics included a $50,000 HEAL grant that was awarded to the W.R. Gray Studio in St. John and a $50,000 loan from SJN Bank for the studio’s renovation. Other subjects included the Stafford County Port Authority, updates on the upcoming Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge; the county’s commercial kitchen, childcare, the Community Fair Building and new housing construction.
This is the audio from our monthly radio show Focus on Stafford County. This show aired in December. It includes discussion on Giving Tuesday, Stafford County’s commercial kitchen, the partnership between Stafford County Economic Development and the Ida Long Goodman Memorial Library’s Lunch and Learns, a new gazebo for the St. John Square and some upcoming grant writing workshops.
By Beccy Tanner
When Connie and Tim Gross retired in 2015, they moved to Stafford County.
For both, it was a coming home.
Connie was born and raised in Stafford County; Tim, from Pawnee County.
They moved to her family’s fourth-generation homestead located six miles north of St. John, off US-281. The property was originally homesteaded by John Shotton in the late 19th century. The Walls family farmhouse was built in 1900.
And, in their own way, Connie and Tim began their lives in 2015 as pioneers back on the farm.
“We decided we wanted to put up a garden because I have always liked to play in the dirt,” Connie said. “The garden we planted had a whole bunch of things.”
It did great.
In fact, there was lots of produce.
“We decided to go ahead and take things to the markets because we had more than we could use,” she said.
A lot more –oodles of green beans, jalapeno peppers, tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, squash, watermelons, cantaloupe, Brussel sprouts and even more than that.
What they didn’t sell at local markets, they gave to churches.
“We just had too much,” Connie said.
So, they began canning.
But as they began selling produce and canned products, they needed a name.
That’s where family history and humor come in.
“When I was little, my cousin, Carol, asked her dad what their farm was named,” Connie said. “Because they had a little hill, her dad (Fred Walls) told them it was Mountain View. And I was really thinking, ‘Well, I wonder what our farm is called?’ At the time before they leveled out the land, the road went up a little hill and came back down then went up again. My dad said it was Turkeyknob Hill. I thought that was pretty cool. I didn’t think it was as pretty as Mountain View but I got a kick out of it.
“So, when we were doing this, we decided we’d call this TurkeyKnob Farm.”
First came the salsa.
And pickles.
Then, their creativity really set in.
The names of their canned products roll off the tip of a tongue. Some are just fun to say:
Bourbon Caramel Apple Jam, Strawberry Jalapeno Jam, Chokecherry Jelly, Jalapeno Butter and Rattlesnake Relish.
TurkeyKnob Farms was one of the first businesses to utilize Shop Kansas Farms, a Facebook page and website that promotes Kansas grown products.
After that, the rush was on.
“I wrote on the page that we had jalapeno butter, and we were selling it around town and at local markets,” Connie said. “We had over 800 responses, 600 people wanted to order it. We had 24 jars at that time. So, that’s really what started TurkeyKnob Farm as a small business.”
The jalapeno butter is Tim’s personal tried and true recipe.
“Tim was working at the stove almost continually making the jalapeno butter. There was no way we could meet the first 600 orders but we did try to meet most of them. As time went by, he began making candied jalapenos as well.”
He has also made and created barbecue sauces.
Both Connie and Tim are mostly self-taught cooks. Both their fathers inspired them to experiment with jams and food combinations.
Connie said her father, George Walls, loved to make strawberry rhubarb jam. However, she doesn’t care much for rhubarb but does make some mighty-mean strawberry jam.
“It seriously tastes like you are eating fresh strawberries,” she said.
Tim was in college when he began exploring different methods of cooking.
“I was living in a house with roommates, and I got a lot of cooking in that way,” he said. “I had an interest in what kind of spices go together to get an optimal taste. It was trial by error. I learned to make the barbecue sauces and then the jalapeno products, as well.”
Currently, the couple market 15 different products. They are sold in eight White Foodlineir stores, some co-ops and various specialty shops such as Smith Market in Hutchinson, Sunflour Café & Collective in Wichita, Happy Valley Farm in DeSoto, Golden Belt Beef near St. John, Miss Pretty Pickles in Great Bend and Simply Unique in Larned.
The number of products they have available can vary from time to time.
A link to their page with Shop Kansas Farms is https://shopkansasfarms.com/turkey-knob-farm-llc
Last year, their business was placed on hold for about nine months. Connie suffered a major fall and ended up with several broken bones, torn muscles and ligaments. Then, there were several surgeries.
And, in the meantime, they moved – twice.
“One of the reasons we moved is that we felt, at our age, we couldn’t take care of the property like we wanted. And, we wanted to get our living area all on one level,” Conniie said. “My dad and Tim’s mother have already passed away. We didn’t have any big reason for keeping us in Stafford County. A couple of our kids now live in the Kansas City area, and we wanted to be a lot closer to our grandkids.”
They now live in Berryton, Ks., near Topeka.
Still Stafford County is close to their hearts.
“I was born and raised in Stafford County and we still have a lot of friends still there,” Connie said. “It was a hard decision to leave. We lived there eight years. But we felt we were getting older and didn’t want to miss out on our grandkids.”
In the meantime, TurkeyKnob products can be found in almost any store around.
By Beccy Tanner
For four generations, the Cornwells of Stafford County have farmed and raised some of the top beef cattle in Kansas.
Now, it is the fifth generation – the grandchildren who range in ages between 15 and 6 – who are taking the next steps for the future of the family name.
In the process of learning about science and entrepreneurship, they have created Cornwell Beef – a website and business that markets the family’s pasture-raised beef.
“We’re a fourth-generation family farm,” said their grandmother, Lisa Cornwell. “This came about as an entrepreneurship project. I love everything about kids learning entrepreneurship.”
And so, they began an experiment – the timing was perfect. It was right after the Covid pandemic shut almost everything down.
The grandchildren had plenty of time on their hands.
Melissa and Jake Cline run Cornwell Beef East along with their sons – Jack, 15, and Kolt, 13, in Eudora, KS. They have a freezer for beef pickups at Happy Valley Farm in Desoto.
Joe and Lisa Cornwell’s grandchildren who help are Gentri Bright, 14; Hadley Bright, 13; and Victor Cornwell, 11; Tianna Cornwell, 6; and Dawsyn Long, 6.
They also have help with a Great Bend delivery crew with Kambri Klug, 8; and Kenton Klug, 7.
The enterprising students first purchased meat from Walmart, Dillons, and Target –as an experiment. They needed some test products.
“We did kind of a science project, and we measured the grease that came off the meat – and its color and clarity,” Lisa Cornwell said. “Then, we compared that with ours, which is a lot leaner.”
The children then began talking about what a business would look like – what its name would be – Cornwell Beef, of course.
“We learned about labeling and how we had to have a USDA facility to have the meat processed,” Cornwell said. “The bigger kids update the website and do the inventory. My littles – and sometimes the bigs, because they can drive—deliver within the area.”
Cornwell Beef has developed a few food products in addition to their meat cuts – such as Pat’s Regular Beef Jerky in Liebenthol made with Cornwell Beef. Another product, Stroot’s Beef Sticks of Goddard is also made using Cornwell Beef.
And this next summer, there are plans to introduce a roast sauce that will make a roast taste more like brisket. They also have hot dogs that are becoming increasingly popular.
The family sells many of their products at White’s Foodliner in St. John and Main Street Deli in Stafford.
“Most of our sales are straight off our website,” Lisa Cornwell said. “And we do the home delivery straight to the porch. Hunting season is a great time of year for us, the hunters like locally raised meat while they’re here and enjoy taking them back home! We are going to try and expand our retail market into the rest of White’s stores later on.
“Right now, I’m out of steaks but will pick up another beef on Monday. The hunters take a lot of the steaks back home.”
Cornwell Farms began in 1917 with Courtney and Naomi Cornwell. Their only son, Jack, began the second generation on the farm when he married June. The couple had three children – Rick, Martha and Joe.
The third generation of Cornwells on the farm were Rick and Gayle who had three children – Jeff, Casey and Bethany. Joe and Lisa had four children – Melissa, Cami Jo, Ty and Marci.
The fourth generation continues the farming and Angus beef production.
“Joe and Ty farm together,” Lisa said. “Gentri, Hadley, and Victor update the website and do inventory. Gentri swaths hay and Victor is a little cowboy, he works cattle and farms. The littles enjoy helping with delivery.
So, what makes Cornwell Beef different?
“We’re a small family farm,” Lisa Cornwell said. “We have a herd of 500 cows. We butcher two or three cows a month for the business. We are not doing anything crazy. We know each of these cows. We treat them like our kids.
“Our cows are on pasture until we’re ready to butcher.”
The cows live on grass from May through October.
In late fall and winter, the herd lives on rye pastures and are fed ensilage, corn silage and ground hay.
“We only cut prime steaks which are like steakhouse steaks,” Lisa Cornwell said.
Which is why their Stafford County beef is beginning to be a sought-after commodity all across the state.
It really is about the beef.
By Beccy Tanner
When Darrell Bauer, owner of the Wheatland Café in Hudson talks about the quality and uses of Hudson Cream Flour, his voice takes on that enthusiastic tone of a loyal fan.
“There’s all kinds of flour out there but Hudson Cream never fails,” Bauer said. “And, they have a lot of good products – a biscuit mix, gravy mix that’s really good.”
But then, he starts listing all the dishes he uses the flour in:
“I use it in our cinnamon rolls, bierocks, for making gravy, breading chicken, chicken fries … I’ve used other self-rising flours before when I was out, and it just doesn’t do the same. I can’t tell you what they (Hudson Cream) do differently, but the food is always good.”
Stafford County Flour Mills Company in Hudson, which has produced Hudson Cream Flour for the past 118 years, has developed a mighty loyal reputation.
The gourmet magazine Saveur told readers in 1998 that “Hudson Cream is not a blend of hard and soft wheat flours, as all-purpose flours are, but is made entirely from hard red winter wheat. The result: higher, lighter breads with a rich flavor.”
Hudson Cream Flour is all about innovation and creativity.
It’s also about a loyal fan base of chefs and cooks that grows exponentially with each generation.
Especially in Stafford County, think about a holiday meal that doesn’t somewhere have Hudson Cream Flour included in a couple of the recipes.
But beyond flour, the Hudson mill is also a trendsetter in many other ways.
For example, in 2014, Stafford County Mills installed a wind turbine outside the city limits of Hudson, making it the first commercial flour milling facility in North America to use wind power-generated electricity produced on site.
That kind of innovation really began decades ago.
According to its website, hudsoncream.com, in 1922, “Leila English Reid, who was born and raised in Stafford County, moved to West Virginia.” Not happy with the type of flour she found there on grocery shelves, she negotiated to bring a train car shipment of Hudson Cream Flour to West Virginia.
The rest is history because now, a majority of Hudson Cream Flour still sells and is popular on the East Coast.
“Why it has survived, I think, goes to two things: number one, it is a premium product on the market, and it’s allowed us to keep a market share when a lot of people sold out.,” said Derek Foote, who is in management at the mill’s corporate office in Hudson. “The other is the local community supporting it. When the mill went up for sale, there were local people buying it to keep it local.”
That happened in 1986 when, the Krug family – the original owners of the mill -were ready to retire and looking to sell the Stafford County Flour Mills. Fearing it might mean a loss for the local economy, several area residents pooled their resources to buy the flour mill and keep the company local.
The end results is that the flour and other products are now shipped to 41 states, Foote said.
“Not all that’s in our bags, nor the Hudson Cream Flour or Stafford County Flour Mills label,” he said. “Most of our label goes either in the Midwest or back to the Appalachian states.”
In addition, the Stafford County Mills supplies the public schools in Hawaii with flour, and product for kosher companies in New York and Chicago.
When the mills are running, 400,000 pounds of flour can be turned out in a day, Foote said.
“A lot of it is the quality of the product,” Foote said. “I think that’s the biggest thing is that we have kind of a cult-like following, especially back in the Appalachian states because of its short patent flour. Basically, it’s how we refine it. We pull a lot of the clear flour, the heavy stuff off. And so, what we are left with is just the heart – a flour that is smother, softer. That’s why the cream is in the name. Big mills can’t do that — or they don’t do it so much. It allows us to make more of a premium product that differentiates ourselves. We have been able to sell to niche markets.
“We are about the only one (in the nation) that does it with winter wheat – that’s the key part.”
In recent years, the mill has also substantially grown a market for organic flour.
“We actually do a pretty good volume of it,” Foote said. “It’s not grown around here as much and not as much of it is sold around here – but that product goes more to the east coast and to places like Denver and Austin. We do a significant volume, and it just keeps increasing.”
Not bad for a flour mill where the majority of its wheat is grown within 26 miles of Hudson.
Stafford County Economic Development, Inc.
We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
Our Office
311 N Broadway St, Saint John, KS 67576
620-549-3527
Mailing Address
PO Box 233, Saint John, KS 67576
Our Mission
To promote economic and population growth throughout the County by assisting our local businesses, engaging in community activities, and promoting Stafford County as a great place to live, work, and play.
We are an equal opportunity provider and employer.