Local Food

An especially unique attribute of the Forever Green Initiative is its focus on commercialization, adoption and scaling. “Broadly speaking, we think of three areas of work: strategy, landscape, and market,” explained Colin. “We need many businesses sourcing these crops, making products and moving them to consumers, either as ingredients or as finished products.”

“Bringing an entirely new crop out into the world while making it something that people can easily become familiar with and start to use is fundamentally a very hopeful act,” observed Christopher Abbott of Perennial Pantry.

River Rock Kitchen & Baking Co’s local community impact starts with sourcing. Under Montana’s leadership, the bakery sources their ingredients from more than a dozen farms, mills, and cooperatives in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

Freshly opened in June 2024, Half Pint Coffee Company brings a new coffee house to downtown Walnut Grove. The menu includes a full coffee bar featuring Half Pint Coffee Co’s freshly roasted beans along with baked treats, smoothies, teas and hand scooped ice cream.

“I’m not that great a cook. I’m a really good shopper,” laughs Beth Dooley, James Beard award-winning food writer, author of more than a dozen cookbooks, Star Tribune columnist, and a regular contributor to MPR.

Kerry, a Certified Cheese Professional, and Mike, who works as a Global Dairy Technology Manager for Cargill Animal Nutrition, create custom events that take you on a tasty tour of the delicious world of cheese.  Both are graduates of the University of Wisconsin who grew up in our neighbor to the east. Minnesota, however, has been home for nearly 30 years, giving them lots of time to discover a plethora of favorite cheeses throughout the land of 10,000 lakes.