Frontier Wholesome Seeds was officially formed in the fall of 2006. The true beginnings for its owner and research manager traces back to 1973, when he started his PH.D. program at Colorado State University. During his three years in Colorado conducting research for the wheat breeding program, he developed a deep appreciation for Colorado’s beauty and climate.

In 1977 he accepted a 2-year post-doc position with CIMMYT in Mexico with the triticale program. This is an international center for the improvement of wheat and corn primarily for the under-developed countries. At this time, he promised himself, that some day he would return to Colorado. Well, it took almost 20 years, and in 1996 because of major changes within the seed-corn industry, he finally had the opportunity to get back to Colorado. His best opportunity in research, turn out to be a popcorn company in the Arkansas Valley of Colorado.

During the growing season of 1997, he managed the research program for Rocky Ford Popcorn Company. During that summer, he observed how well popcorn grows in this unique environment. At harvest, he noticed a particular popcorn hybrid, not only performed well in the field, but also had outstanding kernel characteristics, especially taste and tenderness. He saw the tremendous potential that this hybrid had if it was marketed properly. When the owner of this company, Laurel Meade, wanted to sell it because of health reasons, there was a golden opportunity to get into the popcorn business. However, when negotiations fell through, he had to give-up this dream for eight years.

Then on Labor Day of 2005, mostly because of curiosity, he returned to the valley to see what had happened to the popcorn company. To his surprise, he learned that Mr. Meade had passed away and sold all of his popcorn facilities as well as his research germplasm. His biggest shock was learning that no one took over the popcorn business and that no popcorn had been grown for four years! This set in motion a series of events that led to Frontier Wholesome Seeds. The resurrection of popcorn in the Arkansas Valley became his passion. The challenge and the purpose of this web site, is for the rest of Colorado, United States, and the world to discover the “secret” that currently is limited to the people in the Arkansas Valley. That is “the best tasting popcorn on the planet” is being marketed as Mount Popcorn.