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Apple dumplings and hot beef sandwiches are Stafford County staples at Kansas State Fair

You cannot go to the Kansas State Fair without entering the Pride of Kansas building and seeing the crowds line up in front of the Wheatland Café booth.

Sure, you can check out the butter sculpture and the giant pumpkins, but really the main star in that building is Shannon and Darrell Bauer’s food creations.

“We do about 5,000 apple dumplings and 3,000 bierocks,” Shannon Bauer said.

The Bauers do things the hard way – from scratch. Which means, it is really good food.

They, of course, run the Wheatland Café in Hudson, which is open the first and third Sundays of each month – as well as a sizeable catering business.

At the café in Hudson, it’s not unusual for the Wheatland to draw in customers from miles around on the Sundays they are open. Folks line behind the buffet bar and the line snakes out the building and sometimes down the sidewalk.

The Wheatland lines at the State Fair are no exception.

The Bauers draw lots of hungry people to their booth for the 10 days the fair is in operation.

“We do this to make a living, that’s a big part of it,” Shannon said. “Plus, Darrell likes having that break from the everyday things. He likes going to the state fair and seeing all the people and reconnecting with people he’s known for years. Plus, we meet new people.”

They’ve met Kansas governors who have lined up at the booth.

Happy customers tell them they’ve made buying food at the Wheatland part of their fair tradition each year.

“We start making lists and gathering foods the first of August and then, we start cooking our meat, like for our roast beef sandwiches,” Shannon said. “We cook it ahead of time and then, as soon as it’s cool, we bag it off into gallon baggies and freeze it. We do that the second week of August. We cook on and off and freeze. Those are the things we do ahead of time.”

Then, they live at the state fairgrounds the entire time of the fair – in two RV campers, one for the men, one for the women.

“Our help stays with us, as well,” she said.

“My schedule is that I go to work at 5 a.m. and work until 7 at night,” Shannon said. “Darrell comes in at 7 a.m. and works until 10 at night. The building closes at 9 pm and it takes about an hour to clean up after that.”

How many people do they serve each day?

“I couldn’t even tell you,” she said. “Sometimes, they are lined up clear down the middle aisle to the other end of the building. It is mind boggling. It never amazes us every year to see people waiting in lines that long.”

The Bauers often have the same people helping run their booth, year after year.

They have 15 employees.

“We haven’t had to hire anybody new for quite a while now,” she said. “I mean it’s wonderful to get the same people back each year. For years, we had a family drive out from El Paso, Texas and help.”

It’s a team working like clockwork to make to make a little bit of Stafford County heaven possible at the fair.

The most popular items are, of course, the hot roast beef sandwiches and apple dumplings, a la mode.

But then, they also do a hefty business in cinnamon rolls, coffee, cherry and peach cobbler and bierocks.

“Bierocks are big sellers but hot roast beef, I don’t know why because that is the easiest thing to make – that’s our biggest seller,” she said.

As a longtime fair-goers know, you can’t go wrong with a hot roast beef sandwich. Sure, there are the Methodist Church chicken and noodles, the Lady of Guadalupe enchiladas and Pronto Pups at every turn, but the hot roast beef sandwiches are always a winner.

Think of it, after one of those long afternoons of walking around, seeing exhibits, people watching, buying gizmos and coming into the Pride of Kansas building. You finally get a chance to sit down and have something warm and nurturing to eat.

It goes down mighty fine with a hot apple dumpling and a dollop of ice cream.

“The state fair always helps our business as far as catering goes,” Shannon said. “We have booked so many weddings and funerals from our state fair business because people from all over the state come there.

“It’s good for us as we make our living. I mean, it’s really exciting and a lot of fun.”

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Stafford County Organizes A Letter In Opposition to Quivira Call for Water

A letter signed by 32 city and county officials from 5 counties was created in response the Quivira’s Call for Water. The letter which outlines the catastrophic effect the diversion of water would cause to these counties was sent to Martha Williams Director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. It was also sent to Gov. Laura Kelly’s office.

Carolyn Dunn wrote the letter and a number of Economic Development Directors from several counties collected the signatures.

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Non-Profit Capacity Building Opportunity 

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Grant Writing Certification 

If your organization wants to build capacity in grant writing, then check out these great opportunities where you can send someone to get trained.  Stafford County Economic Development will have some limited funds available to give scholarships to individuals that wish to attend. 

Fort Hays State University Grant Certification Program  

• 8 Weeks  

• All Online  

• September 6th Start Date  

• Program cost $175 USD  

This is an introduction to the grant proposal writing, although several highly experienced proposal writers have found great value in our course as a review and refresher course. The areas of focus will be the key parts of the most sophisticated type of proposals: title page, abstract, statement of need, goal, objectives, procedures, budget, qualifications, evaluation, sustainability, dissemination, sources cited, and appendix.  

https://www.fhsu.edu/sociology/grant-writing-certification-program/

Nancy Daniels Grant Writing Workshop  

• 1 day  

• In person (Dodge City)  

• September 26th or 27th 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.  

• Program cost $40 USD includes lunch  

K-State Research and Extension Office Community Vitality Specialist, Nancy Daniels, will share her knowledge on how to write a grant and where to find grants.  

raisingthewest.org

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Developing Farm to Table Food Processors

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People living in Stafford County know that this county has an abundance of raw materials. 

We are agriculturally focused. 

 We have everything from orchards, a tree farm, a flour mill, watermelons, honey, vegetables and several farms producing high-quality meat and dairy products to name a few. However, there are still just a few farm to table products developed within Stafford County.  

The reason for this has to do with available facilities and also the cost of setting up manufacturing.  There are opportunities to get support from places like Land of Kansas that help support local small food producers (https://www.fromthelandofkansas.com/) with advice on setup, labeling, and even have a marketplace to sell products they support. 

Hudson Cream Flour ships flour to biscuit makers and bakeries.  We have the ability to not only create products within our own communities but because Hudson Cream Flour ships anywhere in the U.S. and with the market access the internet give us today through platforms like etsy.com., it would be great to see Stafford County products in stores across the U.S. and around the world. 

 What about salsa?  What about cheese?  What about jelly for your PB and J?  What if you created those things? 

That’s why Stafford County Economic Development is working on a pilot project to support Farm to Table Food Processors.  We will be launching this pilot project soon to 1) locate all the people and businesses developing value-added food products, 2) provide mentoring through the business plan/product development process, 3) connect these entrepreneurs or businesses to food processing resource experts (production, packaging and marketing), and 4) help them make connections with sales channels in and outside of the county. 

If you have a desire to create a food product for commercial purposes, please reach out to us.  We want to hear from you.  Whether you want to create a product or support the pilot project as a partner business, please reach out to Ryan Russell at [email protected] or 620-314-5561.   

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Raindrop Repair celebrates 38 years of irrigation service 

Raindrop Repair started with Stephen Batten’s passion for problem solving and the fact he was talented with electronics. 

“It was a good fit,” says his wife, Tammy Batten, the office manager at Raindrop. 

Located on US-281 highway, south of St. John, the business is family owned. Their son, Shawn, represents the next generation of the Reinke irrigation dealership. 

“My husband started working just out of high school over here (Stafford County) for a farmer,” Tammy Batten said. “He ran his pivot irrigation systems.” 

Stephen Batten continued working in the area through college and the first years the couple were married. 

She grew up in the panhandle of Oklahoma. 

“My husband grew up in Lyons, so not that far away from here,” Tammy Batten said.  

They both loved the rural lifestyle that Stafford County offers. 

“We don’t care for the city,” she said. 

Raindrop employs six people. 

The company draws customers from not only Stafford County but many surrounding counties, as well. 

“Our customers are the cream of the crop,” Tammy Batten said. “I don’t know if you are going to stereotype a group of people or not, but I would say farmers are your best group of people to work for.” 

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Winners of Photo Contest Announced

Photo of winter’s sunset with irrigation by Jody Suiter

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The Petal Shop Opening Soon

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There is a new flower shop opening in town just off the square in St. John behind Equity Bank.  The Petal Shop will be aiming for a soft opening on July 31st and will have everything from homemade gifts, fresh flower arrangements, candy bouquets, and plants.  The family behind the opening of the shop are the Truitt’s who are also the owners of Kansas Pest Inc. Jarrin Truitt is known by many through the Pest control business. But his wife, Kimberly, will soon be in charge of the flower shop. Keith Van Doren and Darla Stone were instrumental in helping the Truitt’s get their building. Kim is originally from Medicine Lodge and has lived in St. John for nearly five years following Jarrin who’s lived in here since 2005. The Truitt’s also have two boys Dylan and Jett who you’ll probably see hanging around The Petal Shop with Kimberly.

 Kimberly loves doing scrapbooking, journaling, photography and started focusing on crafting in 2020 right as Covid was starting and needed an outlet while being a stay-at-home mom with a one-year-old.  She first got into doing art projects when she joined Facebook groups that had cute inexpensive ideas.  Ideas like the pizza pan wreaths that are featured on early posts on her Facebook page.  In Medicine Lodge Kimberly arranged several community fund raisers and worked with the Chamber of Commerce through social media campaigns and Peace Treaty Pageants.  Since moving to St. John, she’s been a stay-at-home mom.  Now that her boys are bigger, this is the right time to start The Petal Shop.

 Kimberly had been thinking about opening a small craft/gift shop in St. John for the past 5 years but was encouraged by Jarrin to dive into it after seeing the need for a flower shop in the community.  Kimberly says, “Jarrin’s persistence and faith in me probably was the driver. But when we started to investigate what we needed to do, everything has come together like it’s meant to happen.”  They’ve also received lots of encouragement from the community once they announced they planned to open. 

 The Petal Shop will have delivery eventually for the entire county but at the start it will just be Kimberly by herself running the shop.  Eventually they will be able to provide full-service delivery to the entire county.  For now you can do pickup at their shop or they can deliver within St. John area.

 The Petal Shop logo was inspired by Kimberly’s Grandma Violet’s fabric paint design on a pillow case. 

 Follow The Petal Shop and make orders on Facebook or [email protected].

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New Childcare Operator in St. John Logen Kernell

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The Stafford County Childcare Committee just signed a lease with Logen Kernell to be a childcare provider in St. John.  Logen currently lives in Great Bend but is originally from Fowler, KS.  Her boyfriend Garrett Thomas is a truck driver and is from Larned. Logen likes watching her two favorite animated movies Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. Her favorite children’s books from her own childhood are Goodnight Moon & Love you forever.

 Logen has worked in an in-home daycare as well as her Aunts Community Daycare.  She’s even spent some time working in a preschool classroom.  She’s having lots of younger cousins she’s watched over the years and now has an 8 week old son!

Logen says, “I was trying to find childcare for my son, but it was very stressful as most of the daycares were full. I want to be able to help a community like St. John as I know firsthand the struggles with childcare.”  She’d looked at starting a daycare in Great Bend but ran into several roadblocks.  She was then recommended to the Stafford County Childcare Committee.  She’s excited to get started and hoping to open August 1st.  There will be an open house on July 25th, from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.

Different activities she plans to do with the children would include Circle time, this will include the calendar, days of the week. She plans on also having story time once a day and the kids doing a craft at least once a week to take home to their families.

If you are interested in getting on her waiting list:  [email protected] or 620-539-3102

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Abilene Meat Processing Site Visit

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Stafford County Economic Development (EcoDevo) has been looking into different concepts that might work with the growing need of the county’s beef producers to slaughter, process, and package meat to sell directly to consumers.  After talking with Kansas Commerce and Land of Kansas, EcoDevo organized a site visit to see Midwest Meats mobile beef slaughter trailer in Abilene, KS.  On June 23rd a group of 5 people including Billy Milton, Lisa Cornwell, Scott and Jennifer Pfortmiller, and EcoDevo’s Ryan Russell went to Abilene to meet with Troy and Brian Leith of Midwest Meats.  

The group first went to lunch and discussed Midwest Meats journey of over 2 years in trying to figure out how to create a system of farm to table beef products.  The main challenge had been city ordinances which stopped them from doing beef slaughter within city limits.  Now they were operating and had followed guidelines to be Federally approved.  Troy said, “All small towns in Kansas should be replicating this, it’s the only way forward economically allowing small beef producers to slaughter, butcher, and sell directly to customers.  Our goal at Midwest Meats is to promote branded beef specific to beef producer farms’.” 

 The concept they had built was a 13 ft tall trailer that had cooling capacity for 5-6 slaughtered cattle.  They could drive it to any farm in their county, set it up with a 3 man crew, and complete the slaughter process of  a cow within 40 minutes of setup.  After that, drive the cooling beef to their butcher shop and transfer them from the trailer for processing at their butcher/retail shop.  The trailer has on board electricity and water.  They have plans to set up slaughter staging stations at all the farms they worked with, equipping them with a concrete slab and electrical hookups for their trailer.

The trip made all participants intrigued about what might be possible for beef producers in Stafford County.  This is the starting point in the due diligence process to create a project that fits the needs of beef producers in Stafford County.  There will be a followup meeting with all beef producers interested in entering the discussion on how to go about getting beef slaughter and processing into Stafford County. More information about next steps will be available on EcoDevo’s facebook page soon.

If you have any questions or interest please contact Ryan Russell at [email protected] or 620-314-5561. 

Midwest Meats Trip Media

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2023 Photo Contest

Stafford County Economic Development sponsors an annual photography contest for images that will be used on promotional materials and/or our website. A $25.00 prize will be given to the winner in each of the 3 categories listed below, and an unlimited amount of honorable mention winners will receive a $5.00 prize for each entry.

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