By Michelle Sharp, founder of Meet the Minnesota Makers

Located in the south Twin Cities metro, Perennial Pantry sells Kernza® perennial grain flour, grains, pasta, and pancake mix on its website, with dozens of other products available through their monthly CSA. Launched through a crowdfunding campaign in 2020, this Minnesota small business has a big vision to change the way the world grows most of its food. It challenges us as consumers to think differently about what we keep in our cupboards and cook in our kitchens. 

“A challenge with Kernza is to move it from being a novel environmental story that most appeals to people already interested in issues of soil, water, or climate, to something that shines in our diets and constantly needs restocking on our shelves,” said Christopher Abbott of Perennial Pantry. “We want to play to its strength – it’s tasty, it’s interesting, and you can make some good food with it.”

Perennial Pantry develops recipes and ready-to-eat foods that include Kernza and other perennial crops to provide consumers direct access to regenerative agricultural products. Climate and soil positivity is a foundational motivation of their work. The end result is a celebration of taste – both of familiar products and items that may be new to the curious cook.

Perennial Pantry has recently opened a new production bakery in Northfield, which among other benefits will increase the availability of their award-winning Kernza® crackers. These buttery, flaky marvels are the result of dozens of test batches to create something that the Perennial Pantry team felt excited about. Christopher’s favorite part is how Kernza’s distinctive flavor shines in the crackers, making this signature product known for its crave-worthy taste. The new Northfield facility will take the crackers from being a labor-intensive effort of love to a more efficient operation at a much bigger scale.  

Talking with Christopher, it’s hard not to get excited about Kernza and other perennial crops taking root in US fields. Supplying Kernza grain and products direct to consumers allows Perennial Pantry to serve as a bridge to bring it and other climate-positive food products to a wider audience. 

There are more than a dozen other perennials and winter annualcrops in development with the Forever Green Initiative and The Land Institute in Kansas in addition to Kernza and its extraordinary deep root systems. Christopher sees Kernza as an answer to the millions of acres of corn and soy around us that really impact our soil, our water, and our climate. “We’re in a very exciting and unique moment in time, where a broad array of new crops is enabling us to reimagine how agriculture impacts environmental and human health in Minnesota. Impacts won’t be immediate and will require patience and iteration, but new perennial crops could deliver incredibly meaningful changes to our food system,” reflected Christopher. “These new crops are delicious and healthy, but they’re new! Changing culinary traditions and adding new foods takes time, but the vision of perennial agriculture can be beneficial to our lives in big and small ways.”