Eilleen Halloran says farming families who buy and freeze six to eight spelt loaves at a time are the keenest customers for high fibre, low gluten bread she makes at her Glen Innes bakery.

A New England bakery that hasn’t changed a much loved sausage roll recipe in more than 50 years has latched onto the growing popularity of spelt bread.

Eilleen Halloran bakes about a dozen spelt loaves a day at Smeatons bakery in Glen Innes and averages sales of around 60 loaves each week.

“As soon as we heard some local doctors advising some patients to go off traditional wheat products, we saw an opportunity,” Eilleen said.

“Spelt bread is high in fibre, and anecdotal evidence suggests it is good for eaters with gluten and wheat intolerance,” she said.

The loaves are low in gluten but not free of it, so not a solution for those with an allergy (beyond intolerance) to gluten.

“Wholemeal spelt is even higher in fibre, as the grain is not milled as much as white spelt and the husks remain in the flour.”

Eilleen says her keenest customers are farmers and their families on properties around Glen Innes, who buy and freeze six to eight loaves at a time.

She has good instincts for continuing with products that her consumers want - the previous proprietors handed on the sausage roll recipe when she bought Smeatons 17 years ago; now she says the spelt bread looks a winner.

Flour and bread mix to make the spelt loaves comes from Wholegrain Milling in Tamworth and Australian Bakels in Sydney.

Since the middle of last year, Eilleen has been baking loaves that are slightly smaller than average, because they sell more quickly and because the texture is denser and has less keeping quality.

The most common use for specialty grains like spelt is as a substitute for wheat flour in breads, pasta, cookies, crackers, cakes, muffins, pancakes and waffles.

Agriculture Today last November reported estimates that approximately 10,000 tonnes – more than half the volume required by Australian processors of specialty grains like spelt or their products (eg flour) – is currently imported, which means opportunities exist for import replacement.

“Some processors say that if they could get regular supply, increased confidence in the marketplace could see the demand for these grains double over the next few years,” NSW Department of Primary Industries organics expert at Yanco, Robyn Neeson said.

Environmentally, the seeming adaptability of spelt and other specialty grains suggests they may play a role in Australia’s marginal agricultural landscapes and in traditional cropping zones as the impacts of climate change are felt.

Contact Robyn Neeson, Yanco, (02) 6951 2735, Eilleen Halloran, Glen Innes (02) 6732 1108.