ADDISON, Mich. – Claire Smith grew up on a 2,300-acre farm in Michigan thinking it was normal. After all, the farm has been in the family for seven generations.

“My heart wasn’t in it,” Claire said. “My parents were upset that I had let the chicken’s water get dirty and hadn’t collected eggs. I hated carrying five-gallon buckets of water for the sheep in the middle of winter. Most of all, I hated living on a farm.”

Not only did she despise farming, she was literally allergic to it.

Fewer than one-fifth of farm families will have a child successor, and nearly 90 percent of those high school graduates who go off to college do not return home to farm. Claire fit into that 90-percentile. So, no surprise, Claire left the farm to attend the University of Michigan.

Meanwhile, Claire’s father, Brad, knew he needed to make a change on the farm. Market prices for corn and soy he produced were unstable. Brad and his wife, Diane, began exploring the production of alternative grains and seeds. A friend of theirs, who lived in Africa, encouraged them to take a closer look at teff.

Teff is a naturally gluten-free grain native to Ethiopia and has been grown there for thousands of years. It’s known for being high in iron, calcium and protein, and has a nutty flavor similar to quinoa.

“It was February 2015 and I was living in Canada when my parents came to visit,” Claire said. “My dad told me about his plans to grow 33 acres of teff with intentions to eventually sell it to Ethiopian restaurants that use it for their traditional bread called injera. He and my mom told me there was an opportunity to build a business using teff and if I wanted to try it, I should go for it.”

A marketing role in Chicago was her other option. Teff was uncertain and Claire worried how she’d be paid.

“But then I wasn’t sure I wanted to work for someone else and I enjoy working for myself,” she said. “I was just 24 years old at the time. I told them I wanted to be involved in this new project. Although it wasn’t a fulltime job, my goal was to do something with the grain, whether it was selling the grain or teaching people how to grow it. Teff was unknown at the time.”

The Smiths planted a 33-acre test plot of teff to make sure it would grow in Michigan. The crop proved viable.

“It’s actually not the best grain to grow here,” Claire admitted. “The grain enjoys hot and dry conditions and Michigan can be quite wet. We’ve had much better success with buckwheat, but we can still grow some acreage of teff.”

Claire moved back to Michigan to help her parents and began learning as much as she could about teff. Her goal was to mill it and sell it to those Ethiopian restaurants.

“We were unfamiliar with the Ethiopian grain aside from it being high in fiber and gluten free,” Claire said. “The learning curve was steep. What type of soil bed does it like” How does it react to Michigan humidity? How do you clean it?”

The Smiths partnered with someone who knew how to mill teff. Meanwhile, Claire came up with the idea of selling the grain on Amazon.

“We were selling two- and five-pound bags of teff flour on Amazon for nearly a year and a half and saw some traction, but this new alternative grain had potential for so much more,” Claire said. “I wanted to find a way to introduce it to people here in a really accessible and familiar way. I started experimenting with it in my kitchen, making a muffin mix, quick breads, and these accidentally alcoholic energy bites.”

Claire called her new company Tenera Grains. And after three years of growing teff and selling the flour on Amazon, Claire created a granola snack using the family’s teff and buckwheat harvest. Ever the experimenter, Claire added the teff to high-quality ingredients, sweetened it with maple syrup, and Teffola Nutty Granola by Tenera Grains was born in 2016. Claire launched in her first store in January 2018, and the overwhelmingly positive reactions to the flavorful granola paved the way for even more flavors.

“My sister and brother-in-law ate a pound of it in two days so I knew we were on to something,” Claire said. “She was the one who first called it Teffola.”

Teffola was sold at local farmers markets, grocery stores and online retailers. Claire grows ingredients such as lemon, lavender oil, vegan chocolate and almond butter.

“We use grains and pseudograins like buckwheat, millet and teff to create bold and delicious flavors with lots of nutrition,” she said. “Teffola is our first line of products but we’re really excited about our product development which really centers on how we can use alternative grains in new but familiar ways.

“Crops like buckwheat and oats are easy to grow on our farm and are used in Teffola. Of course, bringing new crops to market is easier said than done. Teff isn’t subsidized or have crop insurance like other commodities, and processing facilities, equipment and licensing fees are expensive.”

On the flip side, the niche market for healthy foods, specifically alternative grains, is alluring. The global health and wellness food industry value is soaring. And consumers are ready to pull out their wallets for this trendy way of eating. Claire says 80 percent of North Americans are willing to pay more for foods with health benefits and 19 percent are willing to pay a premium for local ingredients.

Brad and Diane are using this ancient, specialty grain in their crop rotation. They’ve also built a gluten-free, 2,400-square-foot processing facility on site that churns out high-quality teff, millet and buckwheat.

This business unit of the farm (Tenera Grains) sells the processed ingredients to Claire, who uses them to produce and sell granola and other packaged goods through her company, Teffola.