Cascadian Inulin recently bought space in Gering's industrial park for a full-sized facility. It is scheduled to open by Sept. 1, in time for the 1998 harvest of the center's 50 acres of chicory. Many Panhandle farmers have expressed interest in growing chicory, Hibberd said. Inulin occurs naturally in more than 30,000 plants, including wheat, leeks, asparagus, Jerusalem artichoke and garlic. A full bowl of onion soup may contain as much as 10 grams of inulin.
Commercial processors extract inulin from chicory root.
The extracted juice is purified and spray-dried into a white powder. Possible foods that could use inulin's qualities include baked goods, pasta, chewing gum, low-fat milk, frozen dairy products, margarine, marshmallows and pet products. Western Sugar funded the first two years of research on inulin and Cascadian Inulin has supported it the past two years, in cooperation with IANR's Agricultural Research Division. Without modern technology, Allan McCutcheon would probably be lost somewhere between his four offices, trying to field the messages from his four telephones and four e-mail accounts. A social scientist at heart, he relishes being associated with Gallup, arguably the world leader in the field.