Montina was a
brand name
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...
of
flour
Flour is a powder made by Mill (grinding), grinding raw grains, List of root vegetables, roots, beans, Nut (fruit), nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredie ...
created from milled Indian ricegrass (''
Achnatherum hymenoides''), a type of grass native to the western United States. Indian rice grass was grown and used by Native Americans as much as 7,000 years ago. The grass is not related to rice, and the flour is
gluten-free
A gluten-free diet (GFD) is a nutritional plan that strictly excludes gluten, which is a mixture of prolamin proteins found in wheat (and all of its species and hybrids, such as spelt, kamut, and triticale), as well as barley, rye, and oats. ...
.
Indian ricegrass was grown by local farmers and processed at individually owned and dedicated gluten-free plants. Its development coincided with a national interest in diverse flour types in the early
2000's. The majority of farms producing Montina in the United States used non
GMO
A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The exact definition of a genetically modified organism and what constitutes genetic engineering varies, with ...
s in the growing of the ricegrass or in the processing of Montina.
As of around 2016, Motina was no longer being sold in stores, and the few mills producing it had closed.
[https://www.goodfoodworld.com/2011/09/on-the-road-montina/] Its future use in American cuisine is unknown, as other grains such as wheat and rye still greatly outperform native grains in much of the United States.
References
Flour
Cereals
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