What do you do with 10,000 pounds of popcorn your family harvested and thought was sold to a dealer, but the deal fell through? Just ask Kim Baldwin of rural Inman: you create Papa Baldy’s Poppin’ Snacks!

Kim, originally a native of New Mexico, moved to Kansas to marry her husband, Adam, in 2010. Their children, Banks and Isannah, work alongside Adam’s parents, Dwight and Cindy Baldwin, on the family farm that raises wheat, corn, soybeans, grain sorghum and, since 2017, popcorn. 

One winter while Dwight was munching on popcorn, he got the idea to diversify and grow a few acres on their farm. He arranged with a buyer to purchase the first crop, then the buyer backed out. As a family, they decided to start a direct-to-consumer business. Kim’s background in journalism and advertising became important as they began developing the brand of the product and searching for markets. They came up with various names but couldn’t agree on one, so they took their choices to social media.

“I designed various logos then we put it out for a vote on a private Facebook page for farm wives that Cindy and I belong to,” Kim says. “The rug rats call Dwight ‘Papa’ and Adam was nicknamed ‘Baldy’ in college, so Papa Baldy’s was one suggestion. The name and the logo that won was by far the most popular but wasn’t my first choice; my favorite design didn’t even make the cut.”

Like all farm families, all members participate in one form or another on the farm, including children. When I first wrote about the Baldwins in 2018, their children were young and busy bagging and selling popcorn. At the most recent Shop Kansas Farms (SKF) Market of Farms in Andover, Banks stood several inches taller than me but was still selling popcorn.

In addition to helping on the farm, Kim teaches English and journalism and serves as the Inman FFA assistant sponsor at Inman Junior/Senior High School. As if that doesn’t keep her busy enough, she writes a column for Kansas Farm Bureau (KFB), which appears in numerous print and digital news outlets both locally and nationally.

Learn more by reading Growing Popcorn, follow Kim’s column on KFB, and check out their website, Papa Baldy’s Poppin’ Snacks.

Note: Baldwin is the first to be featured in the Shop Kansas Farms celebration of the International Year of the Woman Farmer.