Consumers have yet to develop a taste for Kernza, the environmental wonder grain
startribune.comI've used Kernza flour alot and would love to see it take off more. It has a nice flavor, hard to describe but sort of like a cross between wheat and oats or rye to me.
The issues I've run into is that it's relatively expensive and doesn't have prominent gluten. So it's best used in pastries or baked goods that you'd use a softer wheat for, like muffins, biscuits, or pancakes. Maybe that will change over time as other varieties are developed?
I was surprised to read about the farmer with the backlog of Kernza. It's very new and has been relatively hard to find. I imagine he's running into price issues, or connecting with buyers.
I’m sure if it was cheap enough cereal would get reformulated to have more of it
Or used to make animal feed.
I had never heard of it.
From the article:
> Billed as the new wonder grain — a wheatgrass with a nutty, graham or rye-like flavor — Kernza uses very little nitrogen fertilizer, and its extremely long roots make it a powerhouse at soaking up nitrogen that would otherwise seep into groundwater, research has shown. It's the type of eco-crop promoted for farm country to help cut the nitrate leaching from nitrogen fertilizers into the state's waters.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinopyrum_intermedium :
> Nutritional values and use of Kernza: Kernza contains higher values of protein, ash content and dietary fiber content when compared with wheat. Further 100 gram uncooked Kernza provides 1540 kilojoule (368 kcal) of food energy and is a good source of calcium (120 mg) as well as iron (5.5 mg). Comparing Kernza to white wheat berries, calcium contents are 4.8 times higher and iron values are more than double. Kernza contains gluten but is deficient in high molecular weight glutenin, which limits its use especially in baking. The higher fat content in Kernza may increase overall rancidity, but a higher antioxidant content than wheat may offer a protective effect. [31][32] There are existing products with Kernza such as Honey Toasted Kernza by Cascadian Farms[33] and Patagonia Provisions’ Kernza beer.
I'm curious about the PDCAAS of the protein in Kernza but I can't find any data for that.
Can these be grown in south India, a place without cold enough winters?
We absolutely need to kill ethanol subsidies at some point soon, as its ridiculously net carbon positive. To replace corn, we'll need another crop to grow and this could be the ticket.
This might be something he'd want to take to the manufacturer of Kashi cereal. Those cereals have all kinds of different grains.