To some they're spits; to others, seeds. For one small-town South Dakota family, sunflower seeds have become a source of income and they're hoping a profitable one.

Aside from farms scattered throughout, the back roads of Campbell County don't lead to a lot of destinations, at least not in the business world.

"Well, it all kind of went by accident," Wayne Vander Laan said.

But four miles west of Mound City and a short jaunt north from there sits at least one exception.

"They got less salt. They're slow roasted," Tobey Vander Laan said.

"Brew them and take more time," Wayne said.

They are Wild Dutchman Sunflower Seeds, grown in local fields, then processed and sent out by one local family.

"Me, my dad, my daughters, mom, wife helps once in a while," Tobey said.

Tobey and his dad, Wayne, do a lot of the work. They bring the seeds in, soak them in a salt and sugar solution and roast them before they're eventually sold.

They'll send out anywhere from 4,000 to 8,000 bags per week, something the family wouldn't have even dreamed of ten years ago.

"No, never planned on even, never planned on ever making seeds," Wayne said.

The family also runs an auto sales business. That means making long trips to the Twin Cities to pick up cars to fix and sell.

"For a while, we was going about once or twice a month or sometimes once a week for a while and then we'd eat seeds, you know, to stay awake," Wayne said.

A friend who grew sunflowers suggested to Wayne that he make his own seeds. He eventually did, using a food dehydrator.

"Made them in the kitchen 'till the kitchen wouldn't hold me," Wayne said.

"He was getting more in my way and I was getting in his way and finally we decided he better get out of the kitchen," his wife, Shirley, said.

From there, Wayne went to the barn where he made the sunflower seeds using homemade equipment he rigged up.

"And people kept asking for them, you know. Finally, I couldn't give that many away so they started buying them and then, like I say, one thing led to another and it just kind of took off," Wayne said.

"It was pretty random," Tobey said. "Somebody would say something to somebody and it would keep moving on. That's kind of how our sales went."

Simple things like changes in the packaging show how the company has grown. It used to be a simple plastic bag with a smiley face sticker slapped onto it.

Now, they're hoping the business continues to progress.

"It's kind of just paying for itself right now. So we want to get it to the point where it's, we can pay ourselves," Tobey said.

Stores through much of North Dakota and northern South Dakota sell the seeds. They're on other shelves as well and the Vander Laans ship them to individual customers all over the country.

The business has been in its current building since 2006.  At this point, it's only running one or two days a week.

"Yeah, it'd be nice if it got to be a full-time job and, like I say, even get to where you got to hire some help," Wayne said.

It is growing slower than the Vander Laans had hoped but it's come a long way since the days, not even ten years ago, when it sat in Shirley Vander Laan’s kitchen.

Shirley: Yes, it has.
Erich Schaffhauser: You're lucky it's out of there.
Shirley: Yeah, maybe he's lucky he's out of there.

But Shirley, like her husband, is excited about the future. As it sprang to life almost by accident in Campbell County, she too hopes the business will continue to grow along its back roads.

Wild Dutchman was one of eight businesses to receive a $10,000 fellowship grant from the Dakota Rising program. The program is working to pump more life into rural areas.