Flavor Market near Powell Gardens is known for its homemade gluten-free items

By Jill Draper

Pastured meats, locally grown fruits and vegetables and freshly cooked baked goods are available at a small market on Highway 50 about 1.5 miles east of Powell Gardens and 20 minutes east of Lee’s Summit.

Flavor Market partners with 25 area farmers and specializes in non-GMO organic food and gluten-free breads, muffins, cakes, cookies, crackers and both sweet and savory pies.

The owners, Ami and Jim Zumalt, used to sell products at the Brookside Farmers Market in Kansas City, but decided to limit sales to their store at 1461 NW US Hwy 50 in Holden. Ami’s first sales focused on GF pumpkin bread made from real (not canned) pumpkins. It was a success, and she later moved on to other products as well as supplying various restaurants with farm eggs and allergy-free foods for the Lee’s Summit School District. 

Zumalt says she tinkered with a lot of recipes before creating the best-tasting GF pie crusts, pizza dough, cakes and cookies. She and her staff do all the cooking in a commercial kitchen attached to the market. She supplies a lot of pre-ordered food for customers, but people are welcome to stop by the store and browse through the refrigerated coolers and shelves of produce, herb mixes, salsa, pickles and jam for on-the-spot grocery shopping. There usually are local eggs and dishes like meatloaf, chicken pot pie, dinner rolls, cupcakes, cookies and cinnamon rolls.

Sometimes customers who are visiting relatives nearby bring coolers to pack GF food for their trip back to places like Texas, Arizona and Florida. Other customers come from a range of nearby cities such as Liberty, Warrensburg and Sedalia.

“We’re doing this because it’s a passion—not because it’s a big money maker,” Zumalt says. “We’re not the fanciest GF place around, but we make good food. Period.”

Flavor Market has created GF birthday cakes for children with special diets, GF cookies for people with diabetes and a tower of filled GF wedding cakes for a crowd of 280. 

“Everybody devoured that cake,” says Zumalt, who attended the wedding. “Sometimes we get people who are out of options.”

She began avoiding wheat and concentrating on organic food when her own family developed food sensitivities. Now it’s a way of life that she thinks would benefit everyone.

“I think food sensitivities have been around a long time,” she says. “We’re just discerning it more now.”

Flavor Market is open 8 am-6 pm Thursday-Saturday. See more at theflavormarket.com.