Contact: Marsha Boswell, [email protected]

For the audio version, visit kswheat.com.

From adapting muffin recipes for food allergies to building on family baking traditions, the winners of the 2025 National Festival of Breads embody the community spirit at the heart of the long-running contest for America’s amateur bakers. Janet Gill was awarded the top entry in the Yeast Bread category with her entry of Cranberry Hard Apple Cider Bread and Sarah Meuser won the Quick Bread category with her entry of Vegan Bakery-Style Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins.

“The National Festival of Breads celebrates the tradition of baking bread at home,” said Cindy Falk, Kansas Wheat nutrition educator and festival co-director. “This year’s winners shared not only the results of experimenting with new flavor combinations or ingredients, but also the joy of baking for family and friends. We hope you are inspired by the top recipes from this year’s competition to create something original in your own kitchen!”

The Festival of Breads began in 1991, initially launched by the Kansas Wheat Commission, the Kansas Department of Agriculture and the Kansas Wheathearts – a women’s auxiliary group of wheat growers – to honor the art of baking, promote the use of Kansas products and recognize the vital Kansas wheat and milling industries. It expanded to a national competition in 2009, drawing champions from all corners of the United States.

The 2025 competition featured two categories: Quick Bread and Yeast Bread. Recipes were meticulously baked and evaluated in the test kitchen at the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center by Falk and a team of culinary experts, ensuring a rigorous and fair judging process.

Quick Bread Champion Creates Allergy-Friendly Family Favorite

Sarah Meuser of New Milford, Connecticut, has a young son who is allergic to eggs, dairy and peanuts. When he turned one, she began experimenting with how to adapt muffin recipes to be egg-free and dairy-free but keep the same taste and texture. Her winning entry into the 2025 National Festival of Breads Quick Bread category is the successful result of these adaptations — Vegan Bakery-Style Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins.

“After several slight tweaks over the years, I created this recipe for delicious bakery-style muffins with a fresh, orange flavor and lots of mini chocolate chips throughout,” Meuser said “The subtle crispness of the golden-edged muffin tops, combined with the fluffy, tender, citrus-kissed and chocolate-laced interior, have made these easy muffins a favorite family recipe.”

Honorable Mentions in the Quick Bread category included:

Artistic and Creative Biscuit Award: Foolproof FAUX-caccia Biscuits, Susan Simpson of Harrington, Delaware
Stafford County Flour Mills Award: Hot Honey, Date and Goat Cheese Beer Bread, Janet Gill of Canton, Ohio
Betty Kandt Family Award: Shirley Temple Scones, Michele Kusma of Columbus, Ohio
Holiday Bread Award: Texas Fruitcake Scones, Felice Bogus of Raleigh, North Carolina

Yeast Bread Champion Focuses on Flavors of Autumn Goodness

Janet Gill of Canton, Ohio, has been baking since she was a teen, starting out with her mother’s cinnamon roll recipe and later using a bread machine as a young mother. Today, she loves to experiment with adding different ingredients for added flavors, which boosted her Cranberry Hard Apple Cider Bread to the winning entry in the Yeast Bread category.

Gill’s recipe was inspired by freeze-dried apples that she had crushed up and added to a cake. After she really liked the added flavor, she decided to add them to a yeast bread and combine them with hard apple cider. Dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds and walnuts completed the autumn theme.

Beyond the flavorful additions, King Arthur flour and Red Star Platinum yeast were critical for bringing the recipe together. Gill recommends trying this bread as a breakfast toast or for a sweet and savory sandwich, especially for family meals.

“I love the opportunity to be creative and to make a recipe my own,” Gill said. “Baking is a fun hobby for me, but more importantly, I love to share the foods I make. To me, sharing means love and appreciation to my family, friends, co-workers and neighbors.”

Honorable Mentions in the Yeast Bread category included:

Ethnic Bread Award: Chocolate Praline Povitica, Michele Kusma of Columbus, Ohio
Ease of Preparation Award: Jalapeño Cheddar Roulade, Daniel Alcazar-Roman of Belmont, California
Betty Kandt Family Award: Lemon Meringue Spirals, Michele Kusma of Columbus, Ohio
Cheese Bread Award: Pimento Cheese Pull-Apart Bread with Hot Honey, Tiffany Aaron, Quitman, Arkansas
Best Pastry Award: Sticky Pear Claws, Lanie Smith, Topeka, Kansas
Creative and Artistic Award: Wicked-Good Bread, Stacey Ricker, Douglas, Wyoming

The 2025 National Festival of Breads was proudly sponsored by Kansas Wheat, King Arthur Baking Company, Kansas Department of Agriculture, Manhattan Hy-Vee, Stafford County Flour Mills, Visit Manhattan, Kansas Farm Bureau and the Betty Kandt Family. In-kind support was generously provided by the Home Baking Association, the Kansas Soybean Commission and the Wheat Foods Council.

Learn more about the winners and their recipes at nationalfestivalofbreads.com.

Contact: Marsha Boswell, [email protected]

For audio version, visit kswheat.com.

This is day 2 of the Kansas Wheat Harvest Reports, brought to you by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, Kansas Grain and Feed Association and the Kansas Cooperative Council.

Harvest was off to a rapid start in southwest Kansas on Thursday with temperatures topping out about 100 degrees. There will be more information available on how yields and quality will compare to average by the beginning of next week when reports start to come in.

In central Kansas, harvest came to a halt after Tuesday’s rainfall but will pick back up by the weekend with high winds and nearly triple digit temperatures in the forecast.

Derek Sawyer who farms in McPherson County reports that before Tuesday’s rain they were cutting wheat that was yielding 80 bushels per acre. But Tuesday brought the area 5 to 6 inches of rain, up to 10 inches in some places, and 80 mile per hour sustained winds. This took kernels out of the heads in many wheat fields. He estimates that they probably lost 25% of the yield potential. Test weights were good, but will no doubt decrease with the rain. Some fields are in standing water and may not be able to be harvested. While he should be over halfway done with harvest, Sawyer reports that he barely even got started, and won’t be able to get into even the fields with the least amount of rainfall until the weekend at the earliest. The creek is out of its banks and roads are flooded in the area.

Lee Scheufler who farms in Rice and Ellsworth counties reports that harvest began on June 10 and that yields were average up to 20 percent above average. They’ve had a couple rain delays, including Tuesday’s rainfall which ranged from 1.75 to 4 inches in the area, with localized flooding. He was able to find dry ground on Thursday and get back to harvest before the weekend. After the rains, test weight has decreased slightly but is still around average. He is only about 15 to 20 percent of the way done with harvest and has at least a week left.

The 2025 Harvest Report is brought to you by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, Kansas Grain and Feed Association and the Kansas Cooperative Council. To follow along with harvest updates on social media, use #wheatharvest25. Tag us at @kansaswheat to share your harvest story and photos.

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Written by Marsha Boswell for Kansas Wheat

Contact: Marsha Boswell, [email protected]

For audio version, visit kswheat.com.

This is day 1 of the Kansas Wheat Harvest Reports, brought to you by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, Kansas Grain and Feed Association and the Kansas Cooperative Council.

Harvest moved into southern Kansas about a week ago, but since then it has been slow going. With scattered showers and high humidity, most days the combines can’t get rolling until late-afternoon. There are reports that farmers have gotten into dry fields along the I-135 corridor, as far north as Mitchell County.

Officially, the Kansas wheat harvest is only 3 percent complete, well behind 25 percent complete last year and behind 11 percent on average, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service crop progress report for the week ending June 15, 2025. Winter wheat conditions were rated at 21 percent poor to very poor, 30 percent fair and 49 percent good to excellent.

Chris Stevens, General Manager of Farmers Coop Grain Association in Conway Springs, reports that harvest began last Monday, June 9, but it has been hit or miss. They’ve only taken in about 10% of the bushels they expect, but should be halfway complete by now. So far, it’s too early and too spotty to tell how test weights are going to average, but they’ve heard yield reports from 26 to 50 bushels per acre, which would be an average crop. He mentioned that some of the later maturing varieties had the advantage this year because of the rains. The area doesn’t have any disease pressure so far this year. Stevens is hoping that forecasted showers dodge them and it gets hot and dry for harvest this weekend.

However, the National Weather Service in Wichita is forecasting thunderstorms across the harvest area Tuesday afternoon. Winds up to 80 mph, hail up to tennis ball size and heavy rainfall are all possible.

Chris Fryer, Grain Merchandiser with CoMark Equity Alliance LLC in Cheney, says they’ve only taken in about 5% to date, even though harvest started last Tuesday, June 10. They would normally be about a third done by now, but rains have kept harvest from progressing. The quality has been very good so far, and yields are better than last year.

The 2025 Harvest Report is brought to you by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, Kansas Grain and Feed Association and the Kansas Cooperative Council. To follow along with harvest updates on social media, use #wheatharvest25. Tag us at @kansaswheat to share your harvest story and photos.

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Written by Marsha Boswell for Kansas Wheat