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Russell Wyatt stands next to the Harvest Brigade combine on his place near Oral, S.D. Photo courtesy Peggy Sanders.

Stamp on the side of a combine used in the Harvest Brigade. Photo courtesy Peggy Sanders.

Massey-Harris Company’s Joe Tucker made sure newspapers along the harvest route were kept well-informed. From Pawnee Chief, Pawnee, Neb., via newspapers.com.

combine the required 2,000 acres in the area of Fall River County where he lived. In 1944 the area was dryland farm and wheat country, giving him ample acres. For others, the Harvest Brigade was when the industry of national custom harvesting really had its beginning. Prior to combines, threshing machines were moved from farm to farm in community areas but they did not travel far. A few years later, from 1950 to 1952, Russell Wyatt and his brother Harold leased and operated combines and went on the custom harvest, starting each year in Greensburg, Kansas and working their way north. It was the lure of combines that prompted Russell to buy Seder’s combine as a way of preserving the history. The Harvest Brigade is a little known but highly important element of the stateside activities of World War II. The combine now rests on the farm Russell Wyatt, my dad, owned and when we bought his place, he gave the combine to me.

LAZY RIVER

PHOTO BY JOEL SCHWADER Facebook.com/joelschwader1

Ben Duenwald is proud to offer their fresh Farm to Table Homemade Bread every weekend at Flyboy Donuts four shops in Sioux Falls.

NEW FLYBOY FARM-TO-TABLE HOMEMADE BREAD INCLUDES DAD’S WHEAT, MOM’S RECIPE

By Bob Fitch

“My goal is to get our bread as close to what my mom and my grandma made when I was younger – and I think we've done a pretty good job,” said Ben Duenwald, owner of Flyboy Donuts in Sioux Falls.

Attesting to its quality is the fact that his almost-80-year-old mom doesn’t have to bake much of her own bread anymore – instead she enjoys the leftovers Ben delivers. “Last time I was home, I brought about 10 loaves to her and put them in the deep freeze. It saves very well in the freezer and is a good alternative to pop in the toaster compared to today’s spongy white bread.” Ben’s parents, Bill and Gloria Duenwald, farm near Hoven in north central South Dakota. “When I grew up, my mom would make homemade bread using some of the wheat we ground ourselves. We just called it bread … as we didn’t know anything different except for a few times when we would have what we called, ‘boughten bread.’ A few years ago while my mom was recovering from carpal tunnel surgery, my dad replicated what my mom was hand-doing into a bigger, KitchenAid-size batch. Now I've expanded into an even larger batch from there. So it’s my mom’s recipe with some credit to my dad.” A vital ingredient in the Flyboy bread is