Bradenton's Mixon Fruit Farms turns to Broghies to help employees

It wasn't likely Mixon Fruit Farms had an oil drilling rig in the back of its Bradenton store, but the steady, rhythmic popping sure made it seem like owners Dean and Janet Mixon were searching for black gold.

In this case, they might already have hit it, with their bounty coming in the form of Broghies.

Broghies are disc-shaped, low calorie, fat free bread substitutes that are produced by taking corn or wheat pellets and putting them under enormous pressure and heat. Think popcorn that end's up in the shape of Frisbees.

The brainchild of a couple of Ontario, Canada businessmen, Broghies have caught fire in the U.S., which has created a problem for the founders. They needed a U.S. distributor.

Meanwhile, the Mixons had their own problems. Decreased sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic had forced them to reduce some of their employees' hours. They were looking for ways to give those hours back.

They didn't expect Broghies would be the answer.

It was four years ago the Mixons were attending the International Dairy Deli Bakery Association Conference in New Orleans. When they entered the convention center, they could hear a loud, rhythmic popping sound that pulled them toward it. They were introduced to the Broghie machine.

"We liked it because of the noise," Janet Mixon said. "It was like entertainment."

They purchased one of the $53,500 machines for Mixon Fruit Farms and began producing corn and wheat Broghies for their customers.

It didn't take long for the Mixons to learn the production of Broghies would need a little fine tuning.

"When we first did it, they were sailing all over, like Frisbees," Janet Mixon said with a laugh.

Four years later, Broghie founders Ken Tracey and Terry Brush asked Dean Mixon if Mixon Fruit Farms would consider being their first U.S. distributor. In mid-January, three more machines arrived at Mixon Fruit Farms. Ever since, Broghie production is going almost nonstop during the day as the Mixons try to catch up with the U.S. orders.

On Jan. 30, the four machines were shooting out Broghie discs into a plastic, catch basin. The store's customers were drawn to the back of the store to check out the popping noise and to watch the production.

Teresa Cunningham, a Mixon employee for more than five years, was busy scooping up the discs and bagging them for shipment. She said she is happy to gain hours working somewhat of an assembly line. She enjoys the task, but said she has to stay alert with the wafers shooting out under great pressure and at 214 degrees.

"I almost got hit in the eye," she said with a laugh.

While getting use to one machine took some doing, Dean Mixon said aligning four of them takes some attention. He jokes that the machines throw different pitches, and he has machines that throw a fastball and a curve.

"The knuckleballer is that one on the end," he said. 

He explained the positioning of the plates is key so the wafers are shot out in different directions and distributed evenly in the catch area. 

"It's a learning process and we've only been doing it a week," he said. "To have all four going, and to have them bagged and sealed ... we've got to get all our employees to learn how to do it. It will get them more hours."

It appears the popping sound will be a daily feature inside Mixon Fruit Farms.

"We have individuals ordering cases (12 bags of 15 wafers in a bag to a case) and we had a restaurant in Tampa just order 10 cases," Janet Mixon said. "(The pandemic) has been a hard time for everyone. We're keeping our employees busy."

Janet Mixon said the best thing about the Broghies is that she loves the product.

"They are like a rice cake but better," she said, noting that she thinks rice cakes taste like cardboard.

Dean Mixon said his favorite way to eat Broghies is with tunafish and it now has become one of his favorite snacks.

"They kind of melt in your mouth," he said. "But they won't take over our fruit."