By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University

How about a tasty snack? Would you prefer unicorn eggs, meteors, or bunny tails?

These are the creative names of freeze-dried candies that will pop in your mouth. Such fanciful names are the creative ideas of a family-owned business in rural Kansas. 

Sammy Mills and her husband Chase are the owners of Mammoth Mouth, LLC, which produces and provides delicious freeze-dried goods. Sammy’s family moved around a lot as she grew up. She met her husband at the College of the Ozarks in Missouri. He is a computer programmer and she was a science teacher until they started having children.

They moved to the Kansas City area for jobs. In 2014, they moved to La Cygne in Linn County. They now have five children, ages 10 years to one.

In her home, Mills developed small-batch products of her own as a business enterprise.  She created homemade soaps and lip care products, for example.

One year, the Mills family bought a freeze-drier for their home food use. Mills enjoyed experimenting with it. After reading a social media post, she tried freeze-drying candy.  She took some of that to a craft show along with her other products.

“The candy blew everything else out of the water,” Mills said. It proved very popular.  The market was signaling that they should pursue this as a primary focus of the business.

In October 2022, the Mills family launched Mammoth Mouth, LLC. They remodeled a separate building to become their commercial kitchen, got it inspected, and began operations.

The family considered various names for the business. The name that stuck was Mammoth Mouth. Their freeze-dried candies continue to be a top-seller.

What makes freeze-dried candies so tasty?

“Do you want the short version or the long ‘nerdy science teacher’ version?” Mills responded.

In a nutshell, freeze dryers use a combination of freezing, heating and vacuum pressure to remove moisture from food. “It concentrates what’s there,” Mills said.

In true teacher fashion, she explains freeze drying in a way that makes sense. “It’s like a can of tomato soup before you put the water in it,” Mills said. “There’s more intensity of flavor when the water is removed.”

This process magnifies the flavor of products, whether they are sweet, sour, or savory.  “It’s amazing,” Mills said. “I love seeing people’s expressions when they try our products for the first time.”

Mills has experimented with various types of candies. “My husband and I and our kids come up with the (product) names,” Mills said.

This has resulted in product lines with names such as unicorn eggs, meteors (which have high-powered flavor), and bunny tails that are soft and white. There are also rainbow pops and mammoth donuts (which look like oat rings) with various flavors.

There are also products with names such as party puffs, alien bread, meadow muffins, fairy pillows, caramel clouds and more. It is obvious that the family has a lot of fun naming these products.

Mammoth Mouth is also expanding its product line. Freeze dried fruit is said to retain much more of the fruit’s nutritional value than when it is dehydrated. Strawberry Bliss is one such product. The company also offers a wide variety of freeze-dried herbs, spices and spice mixes.

“I tried freeze-drying basil the first time and then used it on pizza,” Mills said. “It was the best pizza ever!”

Mammoth Mouth products are marketed online and at in-person events, plus through wholesale customers. “I like going to the events and talking with people,” Mills said.

The company will also do custom fundraisers. The business is a member of the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s From the Land of Kansas program.

“We ship all over the place,” Mills said.

It’s a remarkable achievement for a company from the rural community of La Cygne, population 1,035 people. Now, that’s rural.

For more information, go to www.mammothmouth.com.

Would you like a bunny tail for a snack? How about a unicorn egg? We commend Sammy and Chase Mills and their family for making a difference with creative food entrepreneurship.

These products are tasty, by any other name.