How We Farm Regeneratively: Restoring Soil, Ancient Grains, and Real Nutrition on Our Idaho Family Farm

What if the secret to truly nourishing food that tastes better and fuels your body has been hiding in plain sight for thousands of years?

As a young boy on our family farm, I watched my dad plant wheat right after alfalfa and marveled at how well it grew. The alfalfa didn’t just rest the soil, it prepared it, fixing nitrogen and building structure through a quiet, living partnership underground. That simple observation lit a fire in my 13-year-old homeschool mind. My dad was opening my eyes to the intricate symbiotic dance between soil biology and the plants that feed us.

Life pulled me away from the farm for three decades. We didn’t see a way to keep the family operation going to the next generation, and though I didn’t want to leave the family farm, with my dad’s blessing, I left, thinking farming was behind me forever.

And yet, today I’m back where I belong.

Together with my wife and our seven children, my brother Jaxon and his wife Katie with their growing family (soon to be five kids), and an incredible team, we steward a regenerative organic farm and mill in Teton, Idaho. It’s called Grand Teton Ancient Grains.

We grow and grow ancient grains, including einkorn, emmer, spelt, khorasan, and more. We fresh-mill every batch of flour right here on the farm. This single step ensures that the volatile nutrients and essential flavors reach your kitchen at their absolute peak.

But the real miracle isn’t just that we’re farming as a multi-generational family again, it’s what we’ve discovered about how food actually grows.

We’ve taken the wisdom of my parents and the five generations of farming ancestors before them, our hands-on experience, cutting-edge research, along with study of ancient farming techniques to hone our craft and understanding. What we’ve learned is profound: God designed an incredible, self-sustaining system that harnesses the sun’s energy through photosynthesis and the teeming biology in our soils to produce delicious, nutrient-dense food

And it does all of this naturally. We’ve found that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel or fight nature every step of the way. Rather, we need to work alongside nature to cultivate the grains we love.

Over the past decade-plus, we’ve grown from a modest 40-acres to more than 1,600 acres. We’ve moved beyond standard organic farming by steadily integrating regenerative farming principles: building real fertility from the soil up, supporting natural disease resistance, capturing carbon, and keeping living roots in the ground.

For us, regenerative organic farming isn’t a rigid checklist of methods that might shift with new trends. It’s a steady aim: to work with the natural systems the Creator designed, restore the land, and deliver food that truly nourishes bodies and souls.

That’s why we focus on these ancient grains and the living soil beneath them. The results? Healthier land that actually improves year after year, crops with exceptional flavor and nutrition, delivered to you for fresh-milled flours just when you need it, and a farm built for generations instead.

If you’ve ever wondered whether the way we grow our food matters—or if there’s a better path than the industrial status quo—stay with me. Here’s what we’ve learned firsthand about regenerating soil, reviving forgotten grains, and growing food the way it was always meant to be grown.

How We Practice Regenerative Organic Farming on Our Family Farm

That boyhood lesson from my dad, watching alfalfa prepare the ground for thriving wheat, stuck with me through three decades away from the land. When my wife and I started growing einkorn on the few acres around our home, we knew we didn’t want to repeat the conventional path that had slowly depleted so many soils.

We started small, around 40 acres near our home in Teton, Idaho, as a family endeavor and hobby to give our kids the farm experience and grow einkorn for us and our friends. From the beginning, we committed to organic practices with no herbicides, pesticides, chemicals or synthetic fertilizers. After years of research into ancient techniques and modern soil science, we aimed higher than basic organic compliance. By 2019 Jaxon and I harvested our first fully certified organic crop, and today we fresh-mill flours here on the farm to capture maximum nutrition and flavor.

Here in the high-elevation Idaho fields of Grand Teton Ancient Grains, regenerative organic farming isn’t a trendy add-on. It’s daily practice rooted in the self-sustaining system God designed: capturing the sun’s energy through photosynthesis and feeding it to the incredible biology beneath our feet. Because fresh-milled flour is the standard for our family and customers, how the grains are grown—including their nutrient density and flavor—means everything to us.

We put this into action through interconnected methods that work together to build living soil instead of mining it:

Keeping the Soil Covered Year-Round

After harvest, we don’t leave the ground bare and exposed like many conventional fields around us. Instead, we plant cover crops right behind the combine to protect the soil from Idaho’s harsh winds and driving rains, feed the teeming soil microbes, naturally suppress weeds, grow real fertility, and hold precious moisture deep in the earth.

This practice keeps living roots in the ground as long as possible, even through our long, cold Teton winters. Those roots continue the quiet symbiotic work my dad first showed me with alfalfa and wheat: capturing the sun’s remaining energy in the fall, pumping carbohydrates to soil biology, scavenging and storing nutrients that would otherwise leach away, and slowly releasing them for the next crop.

The result? Soil that stays alive and improving instead of compacting or eroding. Year after year, our tests show rising organic matter and biological activity on fields where we maintain this coverage. That healthier biology translates directly into stronger natural disease resistance for our ancient grains and, we believe, more nutrient-dense harvests with better flavor. The kind of food that actually nourishes bodies and souls, just as the Creator designed.

It’s one more way we work with the natural system instead of fighting it. And while we’re still refining species, mixes, and timing for our high-elevation conditions, the direction is clear: covered soil builds resilience that bare ground can never match.

Minimizing or Eliminating Tillage

We reduce or skip heavy tillage whenever we can. By disturbing the soil as little as possible, we protect its delicate structure, preserve the vast networks of beneficial microbes and fungi, keep carbon stored where it belongs instead of releasing it into the air, and greatly reduce the risk of wind and water erosion in our open Teton fields.

When the soil stays intact, the underground biology can do what it was designed to do: build fertility, cycle nutrients, and support healthier crops. This aligns with the quiet symbiotic partnership my dad first showed me decades ago — using living systems to do the work instead of constantly resetting them with human interventions.

That said, we’re realistic. Sometimes, mechanical disturbance is still necessary in a fully organic system. For example, when we rotate out of a productive field of alfalfa, we don’t reach for glyphosate like many conventional farmers would. Instead, we use targeted tillage to terminate the perennial plants and prepare the seedbed for the next grain crop. Even then, we do everything we can to minimize depth and frequency, often following with a cover crop to quickly rebuild biological activity.

Year after year, our soil tests reflect the payoff: fields with less tillage show higher organic matter, better aggregation, and increased biological activity. That living soil translates into stronger natural disease resistance in our ancient grains, and we also observe better flavor and nutrient density in the harvest. This quality is locked in when you make fresh-milled flour from our grains at your home or buy the fresh-milled flour directly from us. These practices produce the kind of truly nourishing food that comes from working with the natural system rather than overriding it.

We’re still refining our approach across our farm because every season and every field calls for different actions, but the direction is clear: the less we disturb the soil, the more it rewards us with resilience and quality that bare, heavily tilled fields simply can’t match.

Using Diverse Crop Rotations and Companion Planting

We rotate crops each season and frequently plant multiple species together through companion planting and intercropping. Different plants pull different nutrients and feed diverse communities of soil microbes. This greater diversity above ground creates richer, more resilient life below ground. Exactly the kind of symbiotic partnership my dad first opened my eyes to.

A common practice we use is growing khorasan (or einkorn, emmer, or spelt) alongside a legume (clover, alfalfa, or peas) and, when possible, a brassica root crop like radish or turnip. The legume companions naturally fix nitrogen from the air through their root nodules, feeding not only themselves but also the millions of tiny soil organisms that our main grain crops rely on. The companions add organic matter, improve soil structure, suppress weeds, and help capture more sunlight and carbon, all while the main crop grows strong and healthy with far less need for external inputs.

We’ve learned a lot through trial and error over the last several years, especially with timing, seeding rates, and separating the companions during harvest and cleaning. Yet the results have been encouraging: fields with this diversity show better biological activity in our soil tests, stronger natural disease resistance in the grains, and exceptional flavor and nutrient density in the harvest.

No Synthetic Chemicals

Unlike most regenerative farmers, we never use herbicides, pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, or glyphosate on our fields, at any stage, from planting through harvest. These chemicals don’t just target weeds or insects; they harm the delicate web of soil microbes, fungi, and beneficial insects that make our regenerative system work.

Spraying to kill “bad” bugs often eliminates the “good” ones too, including the predators and parasitoids that naturally keep pest populations in check. The result can be pest resurgence, where the original problem returns stronger, or secondary outbreaks of new pests that were previously held in balance. We’ve seen how avoiding this cycle allows the full community of beneficial life to thrive.

The same principle applies to weeds. Instead of reaching for herbicides, we view weeds as indicators of underlying soil needs. For example:

1. Kochia thrives in high-salt, saline soils where crop competition is weak — it signals areas where salinity needs to be addressed through better organic matter and biology.
2. Lambsquarters often points to high potassium levels or certain nutrient imbalances.
3. Dandelions frequently appear in compacted soils low in calcium.

We don’t just hope it stays clean. We test both our fields and every batch of grain through independent labs for glyphosate residues, heavy metals, and other contaminants. Those tests give us (and you) real confidence that what reaches your table is something we can feel good about eating.

By listening to what the weeds are telling us and building soil health through regenerative practices, we address root causes rather than symptoms.

Only Natural Fertility Sources

By keeping our fields completely free of synthetic inputs and toxic chemicals, we set the stage for the natural biology God designed to flourish. The result is greater biodiversity, resistance against disease and pest, improved soil structure, and long-term resilience that builds year after year instead of declining. That living soil, in turn, produces flavorful and nutrient rich ancient grains.

This commitment is one more way we choose to work with Earth’s natural systems rather than overriding it. It’s slower and more intentional than conventional farming, but the payoff is healthier land, truly nourishing food for your family, and a farm we can pass on with integrity for generations to come.

At planting time, you’ll often find us injecting a liquid blend right alongside our ancient grain seeds. This fresh brew includes microbial tea, fish liquid (with the fat and bones), and molasses, a living mix designed to wake up and feed the soil biology. We also apply compost from cattlemen who buy our alfalfa and straw.

These natural inputs don’t deliver quick-fix soluble nutrients like synthetic fertilizers. Instead, they feed the diverse community of microbes and fungi in the soil. Those organisms then break down organic matter and release the exact balance of nutrients our einkorn, emmer, spelt, khorasan, and other ancient grains actually need and in the forms they can best use.

Regenerative farming requires closing the nutrient loop, and the optimal way to complete this natural cycle is through the integration of animals. While we are in the early stages of introducing livestock for managed grazing, we already leverage this principle by applying high-quality compost sourced from local cattlemen who buy our alfalfa and straw. This compost delivers concentrated organic matter and beneficial microbiology, ensuring essential nutrients are cycled back into the soil, exactly as they are designed to be in a healthy, self-sustaining ecosystem. We believe this traditional approach of combining crops and animal inputs is fundamental to maximizing soil health and building long-term resilience on our farm.

The result is a self-reinforcing cycle of fertility that builds year after year. Our soil tests show rising biological activity and organic matter on fields where we rely on these methods. That healthier underground life supports stronger natural disease resistance, better nutrient density in the grain, and the exceptional flavor we’ve come to expect from these primitive wheats.

All of these practices, cover crops, minimal tillage, diverse rotations, no synthetics, and now these living fertility sources — work together as a holistic system. They are guided by our steady aim: to work with the incredible, self-sustaining design God placed in the soil rather than trying to overpower or shortcut it.

Why Our Einkorn, Emmer, Spelt, and Khorasan are Nutrient-Dense

When you choose our fresh-milled grains, you are getting the real difference that comes from healthier, living soil. Our regenerative organic practices lead to improved soil health and crop quality, which directly translates into superior nutritional value, incredible flavor, and greater self-reliance and sustainability for our family farm.

On the nutrition side, the living soil we are building supports higher levels of key minerals and antioxidants. Studies on farms using regenerative practices, including no-till, cover cropping, and diverse rotations, show the potential for impressive gains in nutrient density. These studies indicate increases such as up to:

1. 56 percent more zinc
2. 48 percent more calcium
3. Four times the molybdenum in grains compared to those grown in conventional systems.

These minerals—zinc and iron for energy and immunity, calcium for strong bones, and molybdenum for detoxification and metabolism—represent the potential for truly nourishing food grown with our methods.

To further solidify these benefits, we are engaging with a nutrition expert to conduct long-term testing on our own grains, tracking the increases in nutrient density and flavor. We’re excited about this project, but until that research comes to light, our customer experiences—and our own—already verify that our einkorn, emmer, spelt, and khorasan grains are truly next level.

Antioxidants get a noticeable boost too, with higher levels of phenolic acids, flavonols, and anthocyanins that help the body handle everyday stress, reduce inflammation, and support long-term wellness. You can see it in our khorasan with its deeper golden color from higher beta-carotene, and in our einkorn with its naturally easier-to-digest gluten structure that so many people appreciate.

Flavor is where the magic really comes through at the table. Healthy, balanced soil creates slower, more complete growth that concentrates complex tastes and aromas. Our customers tell us our spelt has an earthy depth, our einkorn carries a sweet nutty warmth, and our khorasan bakes up soft and richly flavored. That taste comes straight from the living soil, something you simply cannot get from grains grown in depleted, chemically dependent fields. Because we mill fresh on the farm, those nutrients and flavors reach your kitchen at their peak.

Beyond the plate, these practices build real self-reliance and sustainability. By capturing carbon, preventing runoff, increasing biodiversity, and reducing our need for outside inputs, we are creating a farm that can stand strong for future generations. No heavy dependence on synthetic fertilizers or chemicals. Healthier land that holds water better and resists disease more naturally. This is how we honor the sixth-generation legacy while making it even stronger.

Experience the Difference with Grand Teton Ancient Grains

At the end of the day, our regenerative organic farming combined with fresh-milling are why our ancient grains are denser in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants and why they taste so alive. When you bake with fresh-milled flour from our grains, you will notice the difference immediately: lighter texture, richer aroma, and a satisfaction that goes beyond ordinary bread or pasta.

Choosing our grains means supporting real soil health, carbon capture, reduced runoff, greater biodiversity, and a family farm built to last for generations. You are helping us keep ancient wisdom alive while nourishing the next generation with truly wholesome food.

If you are ready to experience the difference for yourself, take a look at our selection of organically regeneratively grown grains. Browse our fresh-milled einkorn flour, khorasan, spelt, and emmer berries, and our delicious ancient grain pastas. Sign up for our newsletter to receive special deals and free shipping offers delivered right to your inbox.

Thank you for caring about where your food comes from. When you choose Grand Teton Ancient Grains, you are supporting real soil health, superior nutrition, incredible flavor, and a more self-reliant way of farming. From our family to yours, happy baking, and may your table always be full of nourishing, delicious food.