Local company uses ancient farming technique to provide nutrient dense food for customers
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TETON – Some popular brands of Italian pasta could soon cost significantly more — or disappear from store shelves — if President Donald Trump follows through on a proposed tariff on imported pasta from more than a dozen Italian makers.
The 107% tariff, which could take effect in early 2026, comes after an investigation from the U.S. Department of Commerce found some brands sell pasta below cost.
A local company is stepping up to provide a solution. Grand Teton Ancient Grains in Sugar City harvests einkorn, emmer, spelt, khorasan, rye and other organic wheat variants, which it sells to customers nationwide. Some of it is used to make pasta, which is manufactured at Intermountain Pasta in Salt Lake City. Both companies are owned by the same family and rely on regenerative farming to provide nutrient-dense food for customers.
Grand Teton Ancient Grains President and co-founder Jade Koyle explains how it works in a conversation with EastIdahoNews.com.
“It’s the idea that the sun is the ultimate source of energy,” Koyle says. “We’re trying to capture and store as much of the sun as we can in the form of carbon in the soil. We do that by planting different types of seeds that have symbiotic relationships.”
Today, Koyle says many farmers use synthetic fertilizer to put nutrients in the soil that will ensure large yields for the crop they want. Regenerative farming is about working with the natural chemistry and biology of the soil to provide food that’s more nutritious.
It’s based on ancient practices that stem back to the creation of the earth.
“God built this amazing system with all these species of biology in the soil,” Koyle says. “It’s the most advanced technology this earth has and it came with it. We get to tap into that and work with it. The end result is … food that is more nutrient dense.”
Koyle formed Grand Teton Ancient Grains in 2018, but his interest in regenerative farming began much earlier. His wife, Julie, has always been interested in health and nutrition. Concerns about what she and her family were taking into their bodies prompted her to research how food is made and what’s in it.
Jade says he found the key to making nutritious food when he was introduced to einkorn in 2009. Einkorn is one of the earliest cultivated forms of wheat. Jade says its genetic makeup is much simpler than regular wheat and contains only the A chromosome, one of the original genes it inherited from its ancient progenitor, which makes it more pure.
“It contains 14 chromosomes, whereas modern wheat has 42,” says Jade.
It’s not a grain that’s sold anywhere in the U.S., so he found seeds internationally and began planting them locally.
Today, Koyle harvests crops on 1,600 acres throughout Teton, Wilford and Sugar City.
It’s stored on-site and cleaned in a 13-step process in Sugar City before it’s sent to Teton for packaging and shipping. See some of it in the video above.
Regenerative farming is an agricultural method being incentivized by the Trump Administration. On Wednesday, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture launched a $700 million pilot program aimed at helping farmers who adopt practices focused on improving soil health.
Koyle’s sister, Jinger, launched Intermountain Pasta last year after the family bought it from the previous owner. Debbie Chidester operated Intermountain Specialty Food Group in Salt Lake for more than 30 years. She closed it in 2021 because of health challenges.
Around 2019, Jade says they were looking for someone to make pasta for them and reached out to Chidester.
“She made a few batches for us. We liked it,” Jade says. “It became apparent she wasn’t going to keep the business going.”
The Koyles revived the company in August under their brand with Jinger at the helm.
“As 6th-generation Idaho farmers, we’re more committed than ever to providing healthy, clean food and ensuring the highest quality from our fields to our customers’ forks,” Jinger writes in an email to EastIdahoNews.com.
Grand Teton Ancient Grains began relocating its mill from Teton to Sugar City earlier this year. An expansion of its current building in Sugar City is in the initial stages.
Jade is glad to see the business grow and looks forward to serving new customers and offering products for purchase on-site in the near future.
“We hope to be able to accommodate everybody there eventually and have customers come in and buy our products (in addition to picking them up or having them shipped to their home),” says Jade.