Around the Farm Table

– Announcer: The following program is a PBS Wisconsin Original Production.

[upbeat acoustic guitar music] - Welcome to the farm!

As a dairy farmer and a grazer, I'm always interested in learning more about perennial agriculture.

Today, I get to learn a little bit about a new perennial crop called Kernza.

I'll be taking you with me on a journey throughout Wisconsin to meet some farmers and food producers who are doing some really unique things with this new grain.

Gather with us, Around the Farm Table .

I'm your host, Inga Witscher.

[engine rumbling] [cows mooing] Hey!

I'm Inga, a fourth-generation dairy farmer.

Milking cows and making cheese on my small farm in Wisconsin.

I'm passionate about exploring new places, meeting new people, and finding the best local ingredients that I can turn into delicious meals.

[upbeat music] I would like to invite you along on this food and farming adventure.

– Announcer: Support for Around the Farm Table is provided by Wisconsin Farmers Union, a gift in memory of Wendy Bladorn, Marge Engleman, Fromagination, Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

- At the Driftless Brewing Company in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, the lead brewer Chris is working on a special new beer.

[lively string music] - Today, we brewed a unique beer on our pilot system.

The beer is an IPA, which is not unique, but we used a grain called Kernza.

Kernza is a perennial grass related to the wheat family.

It's a really deep-rooted plant.

This offers a real chance for farmers to both have a grazing crop but also a harvestable crop that they can sell into the market.

If we could make this particular grain work and give the farms another opportunity for another crop, that excited us.

That was a real good reason for us to brew with this Kernza grain.

- So in a true Wisconsin tradition, Chris and his team are taking this locally-grown grain and incorporating its unique flavor into a craft beer.

- The flavor of Kernza is really rye-like, wheat-like.

It has some real nice spicy, sharp characteristics that we designed this beer around.

[lively string music] - Driftless Brewing Company was the first brewery in Wisconsin to make a beer using Kernza.

In fact, this is the fourth time they've brewed a beer using Kernza, and they're hoping this version is as successful as the past ones.

– Chris: In this particular batch of Kernza that we got, the color was just beautiful.

The aromas were really nice.

We hope the hop choices as well as the other malts that we decided to use will really work together to create a nice beer.

- We're gonna check in later with Chris and the Driftless brewing team to find out how this new beer turns out.

[gentle acoustic guitar music] [birds chirping] The story of Kernza starts with the Land Institute.

The Land Institute is a non-profit research organization located in Salina, Kansas, and they're committed to developing sustainable systems of agriculture that can feed the world and protect the planet by incorporating perennial crops.

Perennial crops have so many benefits.

They grow back every year without having to till up the soil and be replanted.

They form deep roots that keep nutrients in the soil and protect that soil from being lost to erosion.

And they can also be more drought-resistant, which gives the farmer more stability to changing weather patterns.

So with all these benefits to the environment and to the farmers, the Land Institute set out to develop a dual-purpose perennial crop that could be used both as forage for livestock and as a grain for human consumption.

And this first perennial grain that the Land Institute has developed is called Kernza.

[upbeat music] Like most of us, Kernza is new to me, so I wanted to take a trip around the state to find out more about it.

[upbeat music] My first stop was at the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute in East Troy to meet with Nicole.

Nicole is an agroecologist who is part of a network of farmers and researchers around the Midwest who are growing Kernza for food production while researching the best ways to improve the viability of Kernza on a bigger scale.

[upbeat music] This is really beautiful out here with the moving fields.

I feel like I'm in a ocean of Kernza.

- Yeah, you came on a great day here in southern Wisconsin.

- So what Kernza exactly?

- It's a lot like rye in how it looks because it's a little bit of blue, unlike wheat, but Kernza is actually a perennial grass.

[grunts] So let me pull some up so we can look at the seed head.

So Kernza actually started out as a plant called intermediate wheat grass.

- Okay.

- Which was brought over from Europe and Asia and was naturalized in the western United States as a forage crop because it's very drought-hardy and it has high forage quality, which means that it's really good for livestock to eat.

However, about 20 or so years ago, some folks out east got the idea to transform our agriculture from annual, that's where we plant grains every year.

They thought, "Why can't we make agriculture perennial, "where we have plant cover all year round, "the grower doesn't need to go out and plant and do labor every single year to get a grain crop?"

So it has a lot of environmental benefits, and it can also give us food for humans in terms of the grain and forage for livestock.

[bright music] - Why is that so important for us here in Wisconsin?

- In the spring, we have bare fields, which means that there aren't living roots holding the soil down, keeping our soil in place from wind and water.

So it just blows our soil away, and with it go all of our nutrients and our beneficial organisms.

So it's important to keep that soil in place.

It's important to keep living roots in the soil, and in a climate change context, with perennial agriculture, these guys are growing year-round.

And so they're fixing carbon year-round and putting that back into the soil.

It's also more beautiful to look at, it provides a lot of cover and protection for wildlife and other nesting birds, and it's great recreationally for humans too.

So there are many, many benefits, and a big one that farmers talk about is it saves them time and it improves their livelihoods because they don't need to go out and till and replant their crop every year.

Unlike what you would need to do for annuals, like corn and wheat and rye.

- I'd love to just go look at the difference between the cornfield over there and the Kernza and just sort of like look at the soil and kind of peek around more.

Do you mind?

- Sure, let's go take a look.

[upbeat folksy music] - This is really neat to be out here and see the difference between the row crop over here and the Kernza over here.

Can you kind of explain environmentally what's happening with the differences?

- Yeah, a big one is early in the spring in an annual system, Kernza is green and growing right after snowmelt.

That ground where the Kernza is growing, it can actually, we're hoping it'll have better infiltration and absorb that snowmelt better so we're not getting runoff and flooding.

Whereas the corn, we won't even have corn or soybeans planted for a month when those hard, early spring rains come.

So that's when you get a lot of the water runoff.

It's washing out residual nutrients and fertilizers into groundwaters, which produce algal blooms later in the spring.

So Kernza is expected to have big benefits for water quality and improving lake quality in Wisconsin, which we all love blue lakes and green fields and not the other way around.

So we really wanna keep our soil and our nutrients in place, which is good economically for the farmers and it's good environmentally too, and then we can still produce our annual grains.

So it's just sort of an evolution and a melding of these two systems.

- Well, thank you Nicole for spending some time with me and educating me about Kernza.

[groovy music] After learning about Kernza's value in agriculture, I wanted to see how you could use it in baking.

So I took a trip to Madison to meet with Drew.

Drew is the owner and head baker at Madison Sourdough Company.

Drew's bakery thrives by working with locally-produced grains to create these beautiful, artisanally-made breads and pastries.

Drew sometimes experiments with using Kernza flour in his sourdough breads.

I met with him at the bakery to pick up a loaf of this Kernza sourdough and to find out what it's like baking with this new perennial grain.

What is your process when making bread, like specifically this loaf that you made here?

- So for this bread, I used the Kernza flour and made a starter out of that.

Really, I wanted the grain to be the focus of the bread.

So there's no added flavorings or anything to it, just the Kernza flour.

We did use some supplemental wheat flour to give us some stability in the bread.

And then the only other ingredients is water and salt.

And so, I feel like the flavor of the grain, the aroma of the grain really comes through.

Kernza has a really unique aroma, kinda like cinnamon, like warm, spice-type flavors, which lends itself to pretty interesting applications in both bread and pastry.

- Well, I'm excited to share this Kernza bread with my little gathering I'm gonna have out to the farm later on, and thank you for spending some time with me.

- You're welcome; glad to have you here.

– Inga: One of the key qualities of Kernza that gives it extra value as a perennial crop is that in addition to being harvested for the grain, it can also be used as forage for livestock.

Usually, Kernza is best grazed in the fall, a couple of months after it's been harvested and before it goes dormant for the wintertime.

But these highland cattle are extra hungry, so they're grazing on some Kernza late in the summer, which is fine for Mike, a farmer from Fall River, Wisconsin who manages a herd of Highland beef cattle.

Mike and his wife Angie inherited these fields of Kernza when they took over management of the farm from John and Dorothy Priske, who were some of the first farmers to grow Kernza in Wisconsin.

Now that Mike and Angie have taken over this herd from John and Dorothy, he sees the benefits of this deep-rooted perennial crop in keeping his cattle well-fed.

Mike, thank you so much for inviting me out to the fields today.

- Thanks for coming.

- Been kinda learning about Kernza and learning about the benefits, and I wanted to see it in a grazing situation.

Tell me a little bit about your farm here.

- So my farm here, Highland Prairie Farms, we raise Scottish Highland cattle.

The Kernza here we use is a forage for the grazing and we do combine some for seed and for interseeding pastures, but for the most part, it's made into hay and for grazing for the cattle.

- We've been in a drought where I'm at in Wisconsin.

Have you guys been dry down here as well?

- Yes, we have been drier than normal this year.

- This looks great though.

- Yes, so the Kernza, the roots, they go down I believe, like six to seven feet.

- Oh, wow!

- So they will find the moisture that's down there.

So as far as drought tolerance, it's just not as much of a problem.

- Is this something that you think farmers could really incorporate into their fields for grazing?

- I believe so.

- Yeah.

- I think with the root structure that goes down there, it will always allow, even in the worst of drought conditions, you're going to get something that will grow, as opposed to other pastures with shallow roots that will just dry off and die or go dormant.

This will, it will keep growing, allowing for feed for cattle.

So it's really a neat thing for the cattle for making hay.

It's got several purposes that I enjoy about it.

- So did you stumble into the Kernza, was this here when you started to farm at this farm?

- Yes.

- I kinda, for me it was, we rented this farm two years ago and the Kernza was already planted, and I didn't know anything about it.

And so I kinda got a crash course into what it was, and I really was impressed by what it could be.

So for me it was...

I'm still learning a lot about it, but I like what I have seen so far with it.

- That's the best part about farming though, is every day you get to learn a little bit more about what's on your farm.

- You never know what's gonna happen next week.

[Inga chuckles] - Inga: Back at Driftless Brewing, the Kernza beer is flowing from the tap [beer pouring] and it's ready to taste.

[upbeat music] I met with Chris, his fellow brewer Scott, and brewery business manager Cynthia to try the new beer and hear their thoughts on brewing with Kernza.

- Mmm, this is, oh, that's delicious.

- Thank you.

– Scott: Thanks.

- It's fun because I've been out in the field, looking at cows grazing on Kernza, seeing bread being made by Kernza.

Now I get to be here in this brewery tasting Kernza beer.

This is delicious.

You'll have to tell me, how did you all get into wanting to experiment with Kernza and brewing?

- First, the interest is really fun, what Kernza is.

And when we see something like Kernza, which we feel from everything we know offers some great opportunities for local farms.

We like that aspect of it a lot.

That it can be used in beer, that's a big plus.

And what we're liking is the different characteristics that we're seeing that'll come forth in a beer like this.

– Scott: And this is the fourth time we've made a beer with Kernza, so every time we're trying a little bit different style.

The Kernza leaves a little bit of protein haze.

Hazy beers are acceptable in the IPA world.

- It's pretty to look at.

– Scott: Yeah, it's hazy, not cloudy, but the haze actually helps to sort of hold and capture that hop aroma and hop flavor too.

As we've progressed, we've kind of learned that it does lead to a drier finish.

Like a spicy note that you're getting on the finish of the beer is probably where the Kernza has shown itself the most in this.

It's not quite peppery, but it's a little bit of a spicy backend that isn't too dissimilar from like what rye would do for a beer.

And then yeah, I'm really happy with this.

I think this is the best round we've had with a Kernza beer so far.

- Right.

- Cynthia, you have a background in conservation and grazing.

How have you brought that into the brewery?

- Well, I think one of the ways our brewery is really unique is that we all at the brewery have kind of a background in terms of sustainable agriculture, environmental conservation.

So we're trying to bring that ethic into the brewery, working with local farmers.

But also this is a really neat grain because, we call it kind of a conservation grain.

It's a very deep-rooted plant.

So for this area, where we're always looking for anything that can hold the soil, it has potential that way.

But we're excited about it as a brewery too, 'cause we like to do unique things with local farmers, any type of unique things.

- So you think like in 10 years from now we're gonna be seeing more Kernza beers as a way to use these perennial grains?

– Chris: I would suspect so.

And there might be some other developments that are a result of this project with Kernza.

We know it's a long journey, and with Kernza being so young, there's just so much potential.

So yeah, it looks real exciting and hopeful.

- But it was fun to be the first brewery in Wisconsin to use Kernza.

– Chris: Sure.

- Well, cheers to delicious Kernza beer.

I hope that you'll join me this afternoon for a little meal up at my farm.

– Chris: Sounds great.

– Scott: Looking forward to it.

[upbeat acoustic guitar music] - Inga: The last stop on my trip around the state was to visit with Valentin Picasso at the University of Wisconsin Research Farm in Arlington.

Originally from the country of Uruguay, his work focuses on developing a more sustainable food system for future generations.

[upbeat acoustic guitar music] Valentin leads a team of researchers who've come from all over the world to conduct research on Kernza in order to help farmers develop the best ways to grow and harvest this new perennial crop.

I met with Valentin out in the field to learn more about what inspires him to do his work.

What are some of the things that you're looking for when you're out here with your students and just observing?

What are you looking for?

- Well, the main goal of our research is to develop management recommendations for farmers who wanna grow Kernza as a grain and as a forage.

We're trying to answer questions about when it's optimal to harvest and when it's optimal to plant.

How to increase the grain production, the seed yield.

- Why is Wisconsin a great place to be studying crops like this?

- Well first, Wisconsin has a long tradition of dairy farms, which farmers are used to grow forages and grow grains at the same time.

So there's the knowledge on how to grow a crop for grain and how to grow a crop for forage.

And so I think Wisconsin has both the tradition and the future for developing new crops like this.

- So this seems like one of the perfect plants, if all goes well.

How does it work into the system with cattle and humans?

- One thing we have to realize is that humans are grass seed eaters.

We humans have domesticated wheat and corn and rice and other grains.

And we like eating and drinking the products of grass seeds.

The thing is that those are all annual crops that we have to plant every year, with all the consequences that has.

And Kernza really fits very well because it's perennial.

And so we can harvest the grass seed.

We can make beer, we can make bread, we can make pasta, and at the same time, we can have a crop that's perennial and protects the soil.

Kernza is one example of a way of bringing together food production and environmental protection.

- Where do you see this going?

'Cause this seems like people are still, with your help, trying to figure out is this gonna be something that we're gonna see along the roads of Wisconsin?

- I certainly hope so.

I think that we are developing a new crop and not only a new crop, but a new whole food chain, a whole market chain, right?

And that's why I think it's so exciting to see how people is interested in growing it.

Everybody is experimenting a little bit right now.

Farmers have a role.

The consumers have a role.

The researchers have a role.

The policies in place have a role.

Everybody has to contribute in order to have systems that are good for the environment and good for the people.

Being able to work with a large team of people to develop a crop that can brings hope, that can brings a reconciliation between food production and the environment really makes me excited and gives me hope for humanity.

- Well, it gives me hope to have folks like you doing all the legwork on crops like this.

I would love to have you and your team up to the farm for a meal, if you'd like.

- Absolutely, we will be there.

- Well, good.

Well, nice to see you and I'll see you soon.

- Excellent, thank you.

– Inga: When it came time for me to prepare a dish with Kernza, I wanted to try something a little different.

So I soaked a bowl of Kernza grain overnight.

And the next day, I boiled it on the stove the same way I would do rice.

Then I chopped up a whole bunch of fresh garden vegetables.

The boiled Kernza grains came out with a similar texture to rice that I knew would be perfect for a Kernza summer salad.

So it does have a texture that's similar to a rice.

It does taste nice and wheaty, and I was thinking maybe like this fall, I would use it in place of wild rice in like a soup.

Like I said, we're still experimenting with all these different things, but it's fun to be able to do that.

I'm gonna add in some chickpeas, one can of chickpeas.

I love cooking with any kind of beans.

It adds a little bit more oomph to the salads that you're making.

And then I'm gonna put in all of my squash, my tomatoes.

Sprinkle in the rest of the kale.

And then now, I'm gonna add a lot of fresh herbs.

Basil is one of my mainstays that I grow every year in the garden.

And then I'll just roll up the leaves a little bit and then do a chiffonade.

[knife chopping] And then I'm gonna use some parsley too.

[gentle music] And then I'll give this a good stir.

Ooh, it just smells like summer inside the house.

And now I'm gonna add our dressing here.

Give it a stir.

[spoon tapping] Mix that around.

And then I'm gonna top this with some feta.

And then I'm gonna cover this and let this sit in the fridge for about an hour so that all the flavors can really come together.

It's gonna be really delicious.

This salad is simple enough for a weeknight, but I think it's also pretty enough for a lunch with friends.

I'm gonna go get the table set, and then I'll see you out there for our little Kernza luncheon.

– Chris: Serving and drinking and serving and drinking.

[all laughing] - Inga: For this lunch with friends, I served my Kernza summer salad with a Kernza bread from Madison Sourdough.

And of course, the brand-new Kernza beer from Driftless Brewing.

It's so great to enjoy a meal made from local ingredients and a new perennial grain that is helping to shape the future of agriculture.

Well, I hope this has inspired you to learn more about perennial agriculture, and I hope you'll gather with us next time, - In unison: Around the Farm Table !

- I'm your host, Inga Witscher.

Cheers.

– All: Cheers!

[upbeat folksy music] - Announcer: Support for Around the Farm Table is provided by Wisconsin Farmers Union, a gift in memory of Wendy Bladorn, Marge Engleman, Fromagination, Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.