Slater Sourdough Bakery Home Kneads Wins $25,000 Choose Iowa Grant

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig walked into a Main Street space still thick with construction dust on March 30 to deliver the news Mike and Nina Harris had been working toward: a $25,000 Choose Iowa Value-Added Grant for their Slater sourdough bakery, Home Kneads.

The award is one of 30 Choose Iowa Value-Added Grants administered by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship to support small businesses and farmers who process or market Iowa-grown products. Grants are capped at $25,000, with $500,000 available statewide. Naig said demand for the funding was high.

Home Kneads already operates at a serious clip without a dedicated commercial space. The bakery runs out of the Harris home, producing more than 500 loaves per week, and has built an expanding wholesale partnership with Fareway. The Main Street storefront will shift the operation into a dedicated production facility with a weekend retail component.

The $25,000 is earmarked for new ovens and a delivery van. For Mike Harris, the investment carries weight beyond the equipment list. "It really means a lot, the investment in the community and the investment from the Choose Iowa program," he said during the announcement.

Classes are already central to the Home Kneads identity, and the Main Street move will let the Harrises grow that side of the business considerably. The bakery taught approximately 500 students last year, drawing people from well outside Story County. "We had people come from Fort Dodge, Mason City, even Kansas City," Harris said. Those classes consistently book out two months in advance. Harris frames the teaching mission directly: "I don't care if you buy it, but we'll teach you how to make it."

The ingredient sourcing is as local as the mission. Home Kneads uses freshly milled organic flour from Jeff Hafner, owner of Early Morning Harvest near Panora, who also received a Choose Iowa grant in this same round. The bakery builds its loaves from three ingredients: that freshly milled flour, water, and ancient sea salt.

Slater Mayor Taylor Christensen attended the March 30 announcement and said residents were "looking forward to the amazing aroma of fresh sourdough drifting through town." Melodie Terhaar, who opened Public House 421 on Main Street in 2023 with her husband Russ, offered a street-level read on the momentum: "Watching our Main Street grow has been really, really great."

The 30 grant recipients statewide are collectively pledging to invest $1.7 million in their businesses. When the Home Kneads renovation wraps, a bakery already moving more than 500 loaves out of a home kitchen each week will have its own address on Main Street.