As a former bread-baker, dairy-farmer, and award-winning cheesemaker, Karen Getz has always had a deep love for food. When she learned that she needed to cut out gluten from her diet, she began searching for delicious gluten-free crackers to pair with her cheese. When she was unable to find a product with the right combination of taste, texture, and healthy ingredients, she began experimenting in her own home in the rural community of Winslow, Maine. With other successful entrepreneurial endeavors already under her belt, her research (and love of slurping soba noodles in Japan) lead her to buckwheat flour and the formation of her company, Better with Buckwheat (formerly Maine Crisp) in 2015.
As the primary ingredient of her crackers, buckwheat checked all the boxes: naturally gluten-free, nutrient-dense, and regenerative. The name buckwheat is a little confusing, but it’s actually a gluten-free, nutrient-rich seed that’s more closely related to rhubarb and strawberries than it is to wheat. As long as it is processed in a certified gluten-free facility – such as Better with Buckwheat’s – buckwheat products are safe for consumers with celiacs or gluten-sensitivity. Unlike many other gluten-free flour bases, Karen found buckwheat to be naturally very flavorful, which meant it didn’t require a bunch of added, artificial flavors or fillers to taste great. It also provides a plant-based “complete protein,” which is a protein containing all 9 essential amino acids and can therefore aid in tissue repair and nutrient absorption. Buckwheat is rich in rutin and quercetin, which are heart-health and anti-inflammatory antioxidants that promote healthy blood flow and is full of key vitamins such as magnesium, zinc, B vitamins, and manganese, as well. Additionally, it’s considered a low-glycemic food, which helps keep blood sugar levels stable, and is an excellent source of prebiotic fiber, which supports gut health and aids digestion.
Buckwheat is a fast-growing crop that supports regenerative agriculture. Regenerative agriculture means sustainable farming practices that work to bring back biodiversity and restore soil health. Increasingly, scientists and farmers are looking to regenerative agriculture as a potential solution to global warming, in part because healthy soil stores carbon— and in that way actually helps reduce carbon emissions. Farmers often plant buckwheat as a cover crop, which is a type of crop that’s sown to protect and enrich the soil, and reduces soil erosion on farmed land. It outcompetes harmful weeds in fields, attracts pollinators with its abundant blossoms, and performs wonderfully in low-fertility soils (which means it doesn’t need petroleum-based fertilizers to grow). Buckwheat also scavenges phosphorus and calcium from the soil, which are then more readily available for subsequent crops, and also adds organic matter back to the earth when its vegetation is tilled in. Early on, Better with Buckwheat formed a partnership with a well-established buckwheat grower in Aroostook County, ME: Bouchard Family Farm (famous for their French Acadian Ployes flat bread mixes) and this sixth-generation farm remains the company’s primary supplier today.
Originally, Getz offered only one product: Cranberry Almond Crisps. In 2022, she moved her production to an 18,000-square-foot, 100% gluten-free facility that was formerly a warehouse and today, the company produces five varieties of crisps and three flavors of snack crackers. As a product line, the crisps carry their original name — Maine Crisp — but fall under the Better With Buckwheat brand. Better With Buckwheat snack crackers are made with a proprietary blend of Tartary buckwheat (which is a specific species of buckwheat) and common buckwheat, the combination of which imparts a unique flavor to the finished product. In keeping with a commitment to support Maine’s economy, the company sources locally as much as possible, including everything from ingredients to packaging materials. Karen shared, “My mission from day one has been to highlight the wholesome taste of buckwheat… and give [it] the spot it deserves in the everyday pantry through healthful, shareable snacks for the whole family to enjoy.” By growing the market for buckwheat through consumer education and innovative products, another component of Better With Buckwheat’s mission is to grow Maine’s agricultural economy and support meaningful manufacturing jobs in rural communities.
To keep up with the increased demand that came with securing national distribution contracts, Better With Buckwheat invested heavily in its front- and back-end operations, installing a Vemag extruder and Reiser dough sheeter, two additional Revent rack ovens (bringing the total to four), and an Artypac automated packaging line with a Yamato scale that eliminated hand weighing and bagging. Tapping into local and state resources has been essential to keeping Better With Buckwheat on an upward trajectory. For example, after moving into the new space, the team worked with the Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership to design critical workflow enhancements. A large part of what Better With Buckwheat has achieved so far was made possible by a $500,000 grant from the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry’s Agricultural Infrastructure Program. Receiving the grant was pivotal and allowed the company to purchase much-needed equipment and expand its team, which in turn created more local jobs— as of 2024, Better with Buckwheat employs almost 30 staff. In June 2024, the company launched into Whole Foods stores nationwide (after having started in select North Atlantic region stores in 2020).
Currently, the company offers five varieties of their Maine Crisp cracker line (Cranberry Almond, Wild Blueberry & Walnut, Cinnamon Maple, Savory Fig & Thyme, and Olive & Z’atar) and three types of Better with Buckwheat cracker line (Everything, Rosemary & Herb, and Sea Salt). Cranberry Almond, Wild Blueberry Walnut, and Cinnamon Maple Crisps contain dairy but Savory Fig & Thyme crisps are dairy-free! All of their crackers are entirely gluten-free. For delicious recipe ideas, check out the Recipe page on their website. The Blue Hill Co-op carries their full line of Better with Buckwheat crackers and Wild Blueberry & Walnut, Savory Fig & Thyme, Cranberry Almond, and Cinnamon Maple Maine Crisp crackers in the grocery aisle.
MSNBC Interview with Karen Getz
