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Utah Family's Pancake Business is Flying High
October 13, 1999
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
By Nancy Hobbs
Joel and Jon Clark have fond memories of the breakfasts their grandfather used to cook for them, especially the pancakes (he called them flapjacks) that were light, fluffy and "at least an inch high."
Their mother, Penny, who also grew up on flapjacks, liked them for reasons beyond their good taste. Made with whole-wheat flour and egg whites, with a leavening of baking soda and vinegar, she knew even 20 years ago that they were a healthier alternative to the usual pancake. She figured other mothers would like to feed their children the same, and encouraged sons interested in entrepreneurship to take them to the market.
Joel was the first to try. As an 8-year-old, he combined efforts with his mother to go into business. She bagged the basics in traditional brown lunch sacks, with mixing instructions on the outside; he loaded up and hit the sidewalks of their Salt Lake neighborhood with his English sheepdog, Moe. Neighbors bought all they made, but with the end of summer, Joel chose early retirement.
"It was a little bit of an experiment," recalled Penny. "I had thought of packaging it and wanted to see if it would sell."
She needled Jon next. He was fresh out of college and looking for a challenge, so Penny suggested he look into packaging and marketing grandpa's whole-grain flapjacks on a larger scale.
"I didn't know a thing about grain and baking powder, so I went to the library and started to study," said Jon. After a year in development, he had it perfected: whole-wheat flour, whole-grain oat flour, nonfat dry milk, dried honey and dried egg whites. Equal proportions of the packaged mix and water is all it takes to make.
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