The founders of 3 Farm Daughters, from left to right, are Grace (Sproule) Lunski, Mollie (Sproule) Ficocello and Annie (Sproule) Gorder.
With a mission to create healthier food options, three sisters – Annie (Sproule) Gorder, Mollie (Sproule) Ficocello and Grace (Sproule) Lunski – are transforming the way people think about pasta, one nutritious meal at a time.
After growing up with a deep passion for farming instilled by their family, the Sproule sisters ventured one-by-one to college at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn. However, it wouldn’t take long until whispers from the Red River Valley beckoned them back to the fertile fields of home, Sproule Farms near Grand Forks.
Annie, the oldest, furthered her education, earning her master’s in business administration (MBA). The middle child, Mollie, acquired a law degree. Grace, the youngest, earned her MBA and became an aesthetician, before becoming a certified nutritional therapist practitioner (NTP). All three also earned undergraduate degrees in marketing, which would prove to be patently valuable.
With a wealth of knowledge among them, the sisters pursued various careers and operated businesses, from real estate to a land brokerage and owning a studio. This laid the groundwork for launching a family-owned business with the help of their parents, Paul and Susie Sproule.
Building a generational legacy
As a first-generation farmer, Paul earned his chops working on his uncle’s farm in his youth, while Susie’s family farmed near Walhalla. This shared farm background inspired them to start Sproule Farms in 1993.
Today, Sproule Farms, which is served by Nodak Electric Cooperative, is a high-tech enterprise that uses several technologies to improve production, crop monitoring and field health. It prides itself on efficiency, effectiveness and innovation, and providing nutritious, high-quality products.
In October 2019, Paul – encouraged by their family motto, “failure isn’t fatal” – had a wild desire to bring a product to market, Mollie says.
“It was honestly probably my dad who came up with the idea to launch the business,” Mollie says. “Annie and I were both working full time on the farm, Grace had just moved back home at the time, and with her schooling for her NTP, she really looked at the health aspect of the product.”
Leaning into the grains their family farm was growing, Paul and his daughters created “3 Farm Daughters,” a better-for-you food company making pasta from durum and wheat crops.
A Pride of Dakota product booms
Motivated by an engrained entrepreneurial spirit, the sisters – all three pregnant at the time – pushed ahead with branding, creating a website, social media page and logo in early 2020. By the end of the year, they expanded their pasta sales into 38 stores.
Soon after the launch, customer feedback on their social media led them to take a closer look at their pasta.
“We started getting comments from people who said that when they ate our pasta, their blood sugar levels wouldn’t spike. We also heard that they didn’t experience stomach bloat or other issues you sometimes get from regular pasta,” Mollie says.
To verify their customers’ claims, 3 Farm Daughters did a clinical study to better understand the blood sugar response when eating their pastas. The study found 3 Farm Daughters pasta to have a low glycemic response, or low glycemic index (GI).
Foods with a low GI release sugar into the bloodstream slowly and steadily, which helps maintain stable blood sugar levels and provides sustained energy, the 3 Farm Daughters website states.
The product line has only two ingredients – wheat flour and semolina. They grow a resistant-starch, high-fiber wheat variety, which is the primary workhorse ingredient in their pastas. Unlike other pasta products on the market, they avoid fillers, fiber additives and gluten.
“When creating the perfect formula we wanted for our pasta, we were able to go to the Northern Crops Institute and create multiple different batch runs using different blends of the high-fiber flour versus just regular semolina to find the perfect blend,” Mollie says.
3 Farm Daughters pasta offers 78% more fiber, 13% more protein, 10% fewer calories and 23% fewer net carbs compared to traditional wheat-based pasta.
After conducting taste tests with family and friends, they continued to evolve the brand and their company by utilizing N.D. Department of Agriculture programs.
“The state as a whole has been really supportive. They really foster business, and they want businesses to come to North Dakota,” Mollie says.
The sisters also appreciate the marketing and exposure their products get as a Pride of Dakota product and through attending Pride of Dakota showcases across the state.
Popular pasta products
Once the sisters stepped into the business, things happened fast.
In September 2021, word of their pasta reached the ranks of Whole Foods – a popular national grocery store chain that sells natural and organic foods and is committed to sustainable agriculture. It carries minimally processed or unrefined products as close to their natural state as possible.
With two simple and clean ingredients, 3 Farm Daughters pasta is a perfect match for Whole Foods.
Their six pasta products – cavatappi, elbow, penne, rotini, spaghetti and orzo, their most recent creation with Food Network Host Molly Yeh – can be found at more than 1,200 retail locations, including Albertsons, Meijer, Whole Foods and Fresh Thymes. You’ll also find it at Cash Wise, Hornbacher’s and Hugo’s stores and online at Amazon and the company’s website, www.3farmdaughters.com.
This is just the beginning for the Sproule sisters, whose passion for pasta will keep them looking for new ways to expand their product line.
Leaning on the legacy that food can tell a story, each box of pasta carries the Sproule family spirit and hope for a healthier future.
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Clarice L. Kesler is communications manager for the N.D. Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives. She can be reached at ckesler@ndarec.com.
