The Forever Green Markets Team is excited to introduce the three new innovative businesses selected for the second round of our Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Program—a 12-month program to accelerate product development for Continuous Living Cover (CLC) crops.
Meet the Participants
Meet the people and farm businesses behind this collaborative program, representing 3 diverse crops and growing regions:
Organic Compound Carly & Wil Crombie | Southern MN
From farm to food truck to retail shelves.
Organic Compound is a certified organic farm and food business in Southern Minnesota rooted in perennial agriculture. They grow, harvest, and market hazelnuts directly to consumers, using food as a way to connect people to place and climate-resilient crops. Their food truck allows them to test and refine value-added hazelnut recipes, maintaining a close feedback loop with the community—so far the nut milk drinks are a huge hit!
Through participation in the Forever Green SME Program, Organic Compound is working to develop a retail-ready, shelf-stable flavored hazelnut milk, building upon their popular food truck offering. By pairing Forever Green’s research and technical support with their on-farm production experience, they seek to bring a certified organic hazelnut milk to store shelves and expand markets for perennial crops.
CLC crop of focus: Hybrid hazelnuts
Sustain-A-Grain Represented by James Bowden | Kansas
Hatching diverse markets for Kernza.
Sustain-A-Grain is an innovation-driven company dedicated to integrating Kernza® perennial grain into local and global supply chains through their deep expertise as seed dealers, handlers, and growers. Sustain-A-Grain also operates as an ingredient company, collaborating with food manufacturers, restaurants, breweries, and distilleries to bring high-quality, market-ready Kernza products to consumers.
Through the SME program, Sustain-a-Grain is developing a soy-free poultry feed that uses Kernza as a primary ingredient. Incorporating Kernza into animal feed rations has the potential to create scalable alternative markets for this grain, advancing the resiliency and ecological benefits of Kernza.
This project will be led by James Bowden, Director of Community Engagement at Sustain-A-Grain, a Kansas farmer, a researcher, and a community organizer with nearly 10 years of experience working with Kernza.
CLC crop of focus: Kernza
Buehler Farms David Buehler & David Duncan | Missouri
Creating value streams from elderberry by-products.
Located in Mount Vernon, Missouri, Dave Buehler is a steward of a family farm that has been in continuous operation since 1899. Since 2011, Buehler Farms has become a pioneering regional hub for American-grown elderberries, providing plant sales and guidance to other growers. In 2018, Dave and his wife Ann launched Elder Farms, a value-added brand that has strengthened the domestic elderberry supply chain. Their operation has grown into a key regional processing hub, and is a significant ingredient supplier to the American-grown elderberry industry.
By participating in this program, Buehler Farms is working with Forever Green to explore clear, reliable markets for American elderberry by-products, specifically freeze-dried pulp.
CLC crop of focus: American elderberry
This program is supported by Builders Vision Philanthropy.