Frequently Asked Questions

Kernza® is a perennial grain, the grain of intermediate wheatgrass, a close relative of wheat that was bred into a food crop by the nonprofit Land Institute. Unlike ordinary wheat, which is replanted every single year, Kernza® comes back on its own season after season from the same deep-rooted plant. Those long roots (they can reach ten feet down) are what make it such a friend to the soil. It has a sweet, nutty, slightly grassy flavor that we love baking with.

Most of the grain the world eats, including wheat, corn, and rice, comes from annual plants that are planted, harvested, and torn out every year, which means the soil is disturbed and left bare over and over. Perennial grains live for several years, so their roots stay in the ground. That means healthier soil, less erosion, more carbon stored underground, less tillage, and habitat for the tiny life that keeps farmland alive. Choosing a perennial grain is one of the quiet, delicious ways a kitchen can support a different kind of agriculture.

A few ways. First, it's perennial: it regrows from the same roots rather than being replanted annually. Second, the grain is smaller than a wheat kernel and carries more of that nutty, earthy character. Third, it behaves a little differently in baking. It has less gluten strength than modern bread wheat, so it brings tenderness and flavor rather than big, chewy structure. That is exactly why we blend and formulate our mixes the way we do, to let the grain shine while still giving you a reliable result.

Quite a lineup, and we know each one by farm. Our signature Perennial Blend™ Flour pairs Salish Blue perennial wheat, grown by Chimacum Grain in the Pacific Northwest, with Kernza® from Sustain-A-Grain, a direct-from-farm cooperative in Henderson, Nebraska. Our granolas and mixes also draw on Regenerative Organic Certified and Bee Better Certified rye from Vilicus Farms in Montana, Midwest hazelnuts from Hazel Heart Farms, heirloom blue corn from Nebraska, and wheat, oats, and barley grown together in a single Minnesota field by Luke Peterson Farms for our Maslin Blend. It is a lot of farms for a small company, and that is the point.

No. Kernza® was developed through traditional plant breeding, patient selection over many generations, not genetic engineering. It is simply a wild perennial grass that plant breeders have coaxed, year by year, into a viable food crop.

We had it measured. An independent cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment conducted for us by Planet FWD in 2026 found our Perennial Blend™ Flour to be carbon negative, with net greenhouse gas emissions of about -0.11 kg CO2e per bag. In plain terms, the perennial grains store more carbon in the soil than milling, packaging, and transport give off. The broader reason is the way perennial grains grow: because they are not replanted each year, the soil is disturbed far less, the roots stay in the ground holding soil and pulling carbon down, and fields need less tillage. We try to speak carefully here, since perennial grain agriculture is still young and scaling up, but on our flour the numbers are in.

It is a nod to Farmers of Forty Centuries, F.H. King's 1911 book about farming systems in China, Korea, and Japan that kept the same land fertile for roughly four thousand years, forty centuries, without depleting it. That idea, farming in a way that lasts for millennia, is exactly the future perennial grains point toward.

Fair question. The short answer is that our whole food system, the equipment, the supply chains, the recipes, even the price of a bag of flour, was built around annual crops over the last century. Perennial grains are the promising newcomer. Yields are still smaller, farmland is still being converted, and mills are still learning the grain. Every bag you buy is a small vote that helps the acreage grow. So no, you are not late to the party. You are early.

We admire the ambition. Realistically, no single cookie has that job description, but supporting perennial agriculture is a real and meaningful nudge in the right direction, and it happens to taste like a Kernza® raisin cookie. Think of it as delicious optimism. Save the planet with the other 23 hours of your day. The cookie has this hour covered.

No, and we want to be upfront about that. Every one of our mixes and flours is built on wheat-family grains (Kernza®, Salish Blue, rye, and wheat), so all of them contain gluten. That includes the Blue Corn & Kernza® Hush Puppy Mix, which uses Kernza® flour alongside the blue cornmeal. None of our products are suitable for people with celiac disease or gluten intolerance, and we do not market anything as gluten-free.

Every label carries a full Contains statement (FALCPA and FASTER Act compliant). Here is the quick view across the line. All ten products contain wheat. Beyond that: Meadow and Honey Granola also contains hazelnut; Field and Fromage Granola contains hazelnut, pine nut, and milk; Prairie Sunset Granola contains hazelnut and pistachio; our Perennial Blend and Maslin Blend flours are wheat only; the Rolled Kernza® & Raisin Cookie Mix contains walnut; the Kernza® Miso Cookie Mix contains soy; the Blue Corn & Kernza® Hush Puppy Mix is wheat only; the Chocolate Chip Kernza® Bran Muffin Mix contains milk and soy; and the Rugbrød Nordic Rye Bread Mix is wheat only. All of our products are made in a shared kitchen that also handles dairy and tree nuts, so each label carries a cross-contact disclosure, and we do not market any product as nut-free.

Almost everything is already in the pouch. You just add a few fresh basics from your own kitchen. For most of our mixes that means eggs, butter, and water; a couple call for milk or a neutral oil instead. The exact short list, and simple step-by-step instructions, are printed on every package. (Our granolas, of course, are ready to eat straight from the bag.)

Dairy-free and egg-free baking is often doable with simple swaps, like a flax or chia “egg” in place of eggs and plant-based butter or a neutral oil in place of dairy butter. Strictly vegan is harder for us to promise, though. All of our mixes contain organic cane sugar, and cane sugar is sometimes filtered through bone char, so we cannot guarantee it is vegan. A few products also contain honey or milk. So we are glad to help you bake dairy-free or egg-free, but we do not label our products vegan.

Keep unopened mixes in a cool, dry cupboard away from heat and humidity. Once opened, an airtight container keeps everything fresh. For our flours, the freezer is your friend: storing fresh, whole-grain flour in the freezer helps it last longer, since perennial and whole grains keep more of their natural oils. You will find a best-by date printed on the back of every pouch.

Because it is a little different, in the best way. Perennial and heritage grains have their own personalities. They can absorb liquid differently, develop less stretchy gluten, and bring more color and nuttiness than plain white flour. Doughs may feel slightly softer or stickier, and baked goods tend to be tender and hearty rather than airy. Our mixes are formulated to account for all of this, so you get consistent results while still tasting the grain.

Yes. We designed our Perennial Blend™ Flour as a cup-for-cup (1:1) substitute for all-purpose flour. It has the same protein as all-purpose flour, plus the fiber and complex, nutty flavor of whole grains, and it bakes up beautifully in bread, pancakes, muffins, and quick breads. Because whole-grain flours can drink up a little more liquid, you may want a splash more in some recipes, but you can reach for it anywhere you would use all-purpose.

Trust us: this is the cookie that converts skeptics. Miso brings a savory, salted-caramel depth (think of the way salted caramel works, but grown-up), and it is a natural match for the nutty sweetness of Kernza®. It is the answer to “I want a cookie, but also something a little sophisticated.” Weird on paper, unforgettable on the plate.

Not at all. A bowl, a spoon or whisk, a measuring cup for your add-ins, and whatever pan the recipe calls for will get you there. No stand mixer, no sourdough starter, no special skills required, just the good stuff in the bag and a warm oven.

This is, in fact, a five-star review. Rapid, unexplained cookie disappearance is the most common (and most flattering) issue our customers report. The only known fix is baking a second batch and guarding it more closely. We are not sorry.

We ship anywhere in the United States.

Shipping is calculated at checkout based on how much your order weighs and the delivery speed you choose. As a guide: Standard delivery (3 to 4 business days) runs from about $7 to $8 for smaller orders up to 4 lb, $35 for 30 to 40 lb, and $60 for 40 to 50 lb. Economy delivery (5 to 8 business days) is $11 for 4 to 13 lb, $27 for 13 to 24 lb, and $31 for 24 to 30 lb. Express delivery (1 to 2 business days) is $85 for orders of 50 lb and up. Most home orders of a few pouches land at the lowest Standard rate.

We usually hand orders off to USPS or UPS within two days of when you place them, and from there we trust the good people of the mail to get your grain to you as quickly as they can. How fast it travels after that depends on the shipping option you pick at checkout (Standard, Economy, or Express).

Not right now. We don't currently offer subscriptions, though reordering your favorites only takes a minute. If an easy repeat-order option is something you'd like to see, tell us, we're listening.

Because our products are food, we don't accept returns. That said, we want you to be happy with the experience of buying from us, so if something is not right with your order, just email us at regen@40centurygrain.com and we will work on it together.

Right now our mixes and granolas ship in their own good-looking packaging, and they make a lovely gift just as they are. We don't yet offer gift wrapping or gift notes. Is that something you'd find valuable? If so, let us know, since we shape what we offer around what our customers actually want.

Yes. We love working with shops, cafes, and co-ops. Wholesale starts at a low minimum of one case per SKU, with mix-and-match across products, prepay for new accounts and Net 30 once established. We can also develop custom flour blends from our regenerative grain supply (minimum 50 lb of finished blend). To get started or request our wholesale catalog, email regen@40centurygrain.com.

If it has a U.S. address a carrier can reach, we will do our best to get grain to it. We ship anywhere in the United States. We cannot yet ship to the moon, low-earth orbit, or the year 2325, though given our name, that last one feels like only a matter of time.

40 Century Grain is a Minnesota-based, founder-led, employee-owned specialty food company. Our CEO and co-founder, Beth Robertson-Martin, spent nearly a decade leading pollinator and biodiversity habitat work at General Mills before starting 40CG to prove that a food company could invest directly in the land and the farmers behind its ingredients. The whole company is built around one belief: that great food and a healthier planet can come from the very same fields.

To make it easy, and delicious, to bring perennial and regenerative grains into everyday kitchens. We call it planet positive food. We believe the way food is grown matters as much as how it tastes, and we lead with farmers rather than a single hero ingredient: partners across several regions all doing the most for soil, biodiversity, water, and their communities. Every mix is a small bridge between a more resilient kind of farming and your table.

On real farms we can name. Salish Blue perennial wheat comes from Chimacum Grain in the Pacific Northwest; Kernza® from the Sustain-A-Grain cooperative in Henderson, Nebraska; Regenerative Organic Certified and Bee Better Certified rye from Vilicus Farms in Havre, Montana; hazelnuts from Hazel Heart Farms in the Upper Midwest; and the wheat, oats, and barley for our Maslin Blend from Luke Peterson Farms in Dawson, Minnesota. We are also helping develop a Midwest perennial-currant supply chain with the Savanna Institute. Each bag carries that sourcing story through our partnership with Merge Impact, which turns ingredient-level data into a per-bag environmental footprint you can actually see.

Some of our ingredients carry serious credentials, and we are careful not to overstate the rest. Our rye from Vilicus Farms is both Regenerative Organic Certified and Bee Better Certified by the Xerces Society, and many of our other ingredients, including our cane sugar, oats, and chocolate, are certified organic. We are not a fully certified-organic brand across every product, so rather than a blanket claim we point to each ingredient's real sourcing and certifications, which we keep on file and are glad to share.

We would love to hear from you, whether you are a home baker with a question, a shop interested in carrying us, or a fellow believer in better grain. Email regen@40centurygrain.com or visit 40centurygrain.earth. We answer quickly.

We appreciate you checking. We are flattered, but no. The “forty centuries” refers to farming systems that stayed fertile for four thousand years, which is the kind of longevity we are rooting for (pun very much intended). The company itself is considerably younger, and our grains are freshly milled, we promise.