Breakfast can be one of the quickest parts of the day. Open a box, pour a bowl, grab something on the way out the door, and move on.
But a Montana farm family is asking people to pause for a minute and think about what’s in that breakfast bowl, where it came from, and how it was grown.
Crystal and Jody Manuel are fourth generation Montana farmers behind Gruff Grains and Harlowton based Cream of the West. Their work centers on questions about food, farming, and soil that many people may not think about until they start reading an ingredient label.
Ultra Processed Food Consumption Is Changing the Food Conversation
A 2025 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that ultra processed foods accounted for an average of 55 percent of calories consumed by Americans age 1 and older between August 2021 and August 2023.
The report doesn’t say that every packaged food is bad or that there is one right way to eat. It does help explain why more people are curious about recognizable ingredients, whole grains, and the path food takes before it reaches the store.
That’s the larger conversation the Manuels have built their work around.
How a Montana Farm Switched to Regenerative Organic Practices
Crystal Manuel’s interest in food and farming became personal after she was diagnosed with Graves’ disease in 1998.
According to background the family shared, she began asking questions about the food on her own table. Those questions eventually led her to consider how the family grew its crops and treated the soil.
Crystal and Jody Manuel moved their farm from conventional agriculture to USDA Organic certification between 2007 and 2011. In 2021, they adopted regenerative organic practices.
How Regenerative Farming Practices Support Healthy Soil
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service describes soil as a living ecosystem. The agency says practices that reduce disturbance, keep ground covered, promote biodiversity, and support living roots can help soil hold more water and reduce erosion.
The Manuels say they use crop rotation, vegetative cover, reduced soil disturbance, and rotational grazing on their farm. They also grow Kernza perennial grain, whose roots remain in the ground for multiple years.
The goal is not just to grow a crop. It is to pay attention to what happens below ground while the crop is growing.
How Montana Grown Grains Move From Farm to Breakfast Bowl
The Manuels launched Gruff Grains in 2023. The company uses Montana grown farro, spelt, and rye to make ancient grain grits.
Gruff Grains initially used grain grown on the Manuel family’s Prairie Grass Ranch. It now also sources rye from another regenerative organic farm near Havre. The grain is cleaned and cracked at a small Montana mill, then packaged at the Cream of the West plant in Harlowton.
Crystal and Jody Manuel became owners of Cream of the West in 2022. The company has made hot cereal in Montana since 1914 and uses whole grains in its products.
For the Manuels, the work is about connecting a family’s breakfast bowl, a Montana farm, and the soil that helped grow what is inside it.
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