The State of Grain Journal
Regenerate the Soil and your Gut
There is a definite link between whole grains and gut health
There are a lot of terms to throw around when talking about how agriculture, local food, sustainability. I’ll do my best to be clear and concise, with links for more information.
How to feed a growing population, when most of the desirable farmland is already under intensive production? Locally grown, regeneratively farmed grains are a sustainable solution. Even in this age of gluten free and specialized diets, grain consumption and grain farming still make up a large portion of the world’s diet and farmland use. In 2017, 2.2 billion metric tons of grain were grown, according to Statista.com, with wheat being the third most common grain. We have been consuming grain for well over 10,000 years. Archaeologists are starting to prove that wild grains were part of the Paleolithic diet (most likely a PLANT BASED DIET!) and barley flatbreads have been found in Jordan that date back 14,000 years.
Grains are an essential part of the local food chain, since farmers are the caretakers of arable land (land that is not boreal, desert, beach, rock or tundra), it’s vital that this land remains free from chemical fertilizers and not rely on constant mono-crop expansion for profit and thereby limit our choice of food. We want farmers who steward the land by crop rotation, cover cropping and animal grazing, regenerating the soil and increasing fertility. Stewarding over extracting.
Sustainable means agricultural practices that maintain/improve soil fertility while having a profitable yield and can be kept in rotation. I prefer the term “regenerative” over sustainable, as regenerative means that the soil is actually being improved and the farmer is creating a diverse eco-system on their farm through a combination of crop rotation, animal grazing and bio-diversity. (to learn more about this type of farming, I recommend: Gabe Brown’s “Dirt to Soil” and the podcast: Regenerative Agriculture by John Kempf as good starting points) Regeneratively farmed soil is capable of holding a multitude of microbial/fungi life and has greater water retention capacity, which is especially essential with irregular rainfall/prolonged drought in this age of climate instability. We don’t want urban sprawl reaching ever onwards, we don’t want vast mono crop-commodity farms that pollute our waterways and soils with petroleum based fertilizers and chemicals.
Although there is no way that consuming these chemicals can be good for you, (glyphosphate is an antibiotic among other things) there has been no proven link between chemicals such as glyphosphate and dietary/gluten issues. But, there are proven links between consuming fibre and a healthy gut biome. Scientists are also finding that gluten is most likely NOT the cause of dietary issues (celiacs excepted) and that the gluten content of wheat has not changed. There are no “new” proteins in modern wheat. All wheat breeding can do is combine and promote certain desired characteristics already found in wheat. It cannot create anything new. There is no commercially available GMO wheat, just a lot of glyphosphate spraying throughout growing season and at harvest on most commodity wheat. Farmers growing organic or regenerative grains don’t spray glyphospate; it interferes with the symbiotic relationship between the plant roots, soil fungi and of course is not allowed under organic standards.
And what about modern wheat and it’s evils? The scare of “dwarf” wheat and it’s supposed health consequences doesn’t bear up. The gene for “dwarf” wheat exists in older strains of wheat (they were taken from a Japanese landrace wheat) and the parents of modern dwarf wheat (Norin 10) are the landrace wheats: Fultz-Daruma and Turkey Red. Something to think about.
The nonsense that humans haven’t been eating wheat for long enough to evolve a suitable digestive system for it, gets a solid take down in “Neglected Cereals” by Frederich Longin and Thomas Miedaner, who state, “wheat has been a main source of carbohydrates since the Neolithic revolution about 10,000 years ago. Moreover we have been eating wild wheat forms before that, since these were growing predominantly in…the Fertile Crescent….The first wild grains, particularly emmer, barley and oat were already being found 23,000 years ago in Ohalo, a region of present-day Israel. Archaeologists have even found microparticles from wild forms of wheat, rye and barley in the teeth of Neandarthals, who lived about 45,000 years ago.”
Scientists studying our gut microbiome are beginning to understand and document the need for whole grains (you need to read this link! Dr. Andrew Ross, a friend and mentor is also a terrific writer) in our diet. The role that bran plays, is now seen as more than inert fibre. It is seen as micobiota accessible and important for maintaining healthy gut bacteria. According to Corrie Whisner of University of Arizona, our gut microbes break down bran (humans lack the enzyme to break down dietary fibre) and convert it into short chain fatty acids that “that are the primary fuel source for our intestinal cells, so it keeps our gut healthy” and once these SCFA pass into the blood, “they can lower our blood pressure, improve vascular function and lower our glucose spikes.” She also mentions that healthy non-celiac people on gluten-free diets have been found to have more pathogenic microbes in their biome and increased inflammation. Interesting….
So what’s behind this new wheat intolerance? FODMAPS, leaky gut , lack of fibre? I don’t know, but I am hoping that science can help and that the local grain movement keeps growing and getting people to eat better wheat and more wholegrains. For me, it makes sense that healthy soils grow healthy food. Food that needs to kept in it’s whole form. North Americans really fail at getting enough fibre in their diet and eating more whole grains is an easy way to do that and get all those minerals and nutrients we need. And by choosing regeneratively grown grains, you are supporting healthy soils and a healthy gut.
One of these posts, I’ll explore all the additives and preservatives found in commodity white flour and why that isn’t food.
Heritage Grains: Are They Worth It?
Why I use heritage grains, even though they aren’t the ideal solution
There’s a lot of debate about the role of heritage grains in rebuilding grain economies. One side definitely thinks they are the answer to today’s tasteless wheat and exploitative commodity system. I don’t think heritage grains are the cure to our current system of wheat farming and centralization. Their yields are small compared to modern varieties, they can be tricky to process, as many require de-hulling (removal of outer husk to access the wheat berry) and have long stems that can clog a combine or lodge (fall over) in a field.
These are grains that were grown a 150 years ago and then some, so there aren’t a lot of them still around. This lack of available seed means the farmer has to spend years growing out a handful of seed to a viable crop (there will be another post regarding the challenges of this) and the grains are very different to mill and bake with, compared to modern grains with their strong gluten and harder wheat berries.
BUT I do know that at this moment in Ontario, any farmer who wants to grow tasty, diverse and sustainable grains has to use primarily heritage grains, as there aren’t regional breeding programs dedicated to developing organic, high-yielding genetically diversified and evolutionary landrace/population wheats suitable for our climate. Therefore, heritage grains answer: our lack of diversity issue; grains that are suited for whole grain baking issue; grains that promote soil health issue; grains that are nutrient dense issue; grains with long root systems that promote soil health issue; grains that hold diverse genetics to developing climate change resistant crops issue…..
Modern wheat was bred to fit the needs of large scale farming and processing. To create commercial white flour, the mill must separate the bran and the germ from the kernel, leaving the endosperm (the part that makes white flour). Today’s commodity wheats are bred for large endosperm and a thin bran layer that easily flakes off in roller milling. Why is the thin bran layer an issue? Bran is where most of the minerals/nutrients (zinc, manganese, selenium, iron and amino acids) are. The majority of breeders are developing wheats with minimum bran, therefore less nutrition, and then millers take off any nutrition there was in the pursuit of white flour and low ash content (ash content measures the trace minerals in flour and a low content is desired by millers as a sign of increased white flour amounts per kernel). Then they must fortify the flour to replace what was lost.
Heritage wheats often have thicker bran coats. Wheats such Einkorn and Emmer are seen as nutrient dense grains with higher levels of lutein and betacarotene. Fortunately, some breeders are moving away from breeding for white flour wheats and breeding for flavour, nutrients and genetic diversity within the wheat population. It’s just going to a take while for that to reach Ontario and for farmers to switch over.
If you ask a farmer to grow a variety of wheat organically, mill it and deliver it to you, how can you discard over 20% of it? (it can be closer to 30% with older varieties due to the endosperm- bran ratio) Especially as the bran and the germ are where flavour and nutrition reside. Did you know that wholegrains are one of the largest sources for Vitamin E? It is found in the oil of the germ and in the bran. So that is why we use wholegrain flour, where the bran, germ and endosperm are kept together for maximum nutrients and taste.
Regional whole grains offer everything that commodity wheat cannot.
1. Whole Grain Nutrition: The outer layer of the grain contain most of the nutrients and when freshly milled it has a wonderful taste and texture. (Enriched white flours are an indication that the good stuff has been removed.)
2. Sustainability: These older varieties adapt to their growing conditions, better than most modern seeds, which are bred for limited characteristics in controlled environments. Seeds don’t have to be purchased from outside the farm. They can be planted each year, collected after harvest and planted the following year. They are not patented and owned by a private corporation. Heritage grains are an asset that stays on the farm, year after year. Some breeders are working on modern varieties that have yield and flavour, which is great! Let’s hope that becomes the new norm.
3. Diversity: Focusing on a single seed species inhibits long-term agricultural diversity. Growing buckwheat, rye, barley, and spelt can offer so much more than a single crop of bread wheat. The soil benefits greatly with crop rotation and seed variety. Nutrients remain in the soil, which lends itself to organic farming and offer more variety in our diets.
Regional grains connect us to a time where small farming communities were the norm, where you knew the person who grew your food, or you grew it yourself. We have the unique benefit of living in modern cities with modern conveniences, that offer connections to these special grains through a new breed of committed farmers. Peter Leahy of Merrylynd Organics and Shelley and Tony Spruit of Against The Grain Farm are our main grain suppliers. Look for regional grains at farmers markets, through subscriptions to Community Supported Agriculture, food artisans and at farm-gate sales. Currently, we are using buckwheat, rye, barley, emmer, red fife wheat and spelt all grown in Ontario.
Flour As Flavour
A plea to white flour bakers
“Flour is flavour” I say to my customers and in every workshop I teach. Flour is food, not just a base for fermentation and sweetening. Nutrient dense grains need to be a key part of our diets. Even if you are celiac- there is quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, sorghum and more. Most bakeries remove all the nutritional elements of the grain so they can achieve what is considered artisan baking.
But I believe that the term “artisan” extends all the way to ingredients. Meaning use the best- the most sustainable, the most delicious, the most local. It’s all connected. Just like there is a movement to cut back on food waste and use the trimmings, the bones, the stalks; think of a wheat kernel the same way! Why remove the bran and sift out the germ? That is where flavour lies.
When we started our cracker business, I knew we had to use local flour. Local flour at that time meant wholegrain flour, as the farmers who had stone mills, weren’t sifting. So the crackers were born and we haven’t gone back to using sifted flour in any of our products. While there is certainly a good argument to be made for sifting out some of the bran, let’s just move forward and go with “all the grain.” Whole grains are a way to express terroir and move away from commodification and homogeneity.
When we chose to work with Ontario whole grains, we didn’t really understand how much that would dictate what we ended up baking and deepen our understanding of terroir. To us, local grains are synonymous with whole grains. How could I ask the miller to discard most of what gives the grain it’s special flavor? And, from a business perspective, why would I pay more for less FLAVOUR?
Using only locally grown whole grains can appear to put one into a narrow box. But having limitations is a great creative push to take risks and create things outside what you know. A limited pantry forces creativity : how many ways can I use buckwheat without turning everything grey and earthy tasting…how many combinations of grains can I do so the flavors are different? Quite a bit, actually. Treating flour as flavour has changed the way I bake and lead me to a deeper commitment to pursuing what I call “grain-forward” baking.
When you start treating grains as flavours, as their own ingredient, you don’t miss the white flour. Using a combination of grains of varying gluten quality, absorption and flavour allows us a lot of room for creativity. And the flavour is coming from the germ and the bran, which is another reason for using wholegrain.
When you look at these whole grains, they are not just widgets to plug into recipes, you see the story and the farmer and miller behind each one. Each grain has its own personality and flavour. Using exclusively these grains is how we can create a local grain economy. And by not discarding any of the bran and the germ, we honour all the work that goes into growing grains and the art of milling. And honestly, the price we pay for the grain, I am not going to throw any of it away, to achieve what is already familiar.
We understand the terroir of wine, let’s apply it to grains. Who wants to drink a California style cab made in Ontario? In using wholegrain, it’s tempting to cut it with white flour to achieve the holey grail of crumb structure, oven spring and recognizable sourdough flavor, but don’t. Embrace the individuality of local grains, so there isn’t the same style of loaf from San Francisco to New York. We have an opportunity to use grains as a means of expressing local flavours. It’s okay if our local grain doesn’t give use large crumb holes, it’s okay if the grain we have might not be as sweet as the grain grown elsewhere. ( The red fife I am now using tastes quite different from the fife I used to buy from the eastern part of the province- different soils mean different tastes). It’s okay to be different.
We use local whole grains and figure out the best way to bring the grain to it’s fullest expression of where it is grown. Instead of my Instagram feed crowded with hairy forearms holding up high extraction loaf crumb shots, I would love to see them holding up baked goods made from local whole grains! It doesn’t have to be bread. It could be cookies or scones or crackers.
When you are getting into small batch grains, you need to take off your bread bakers hat with it’s expectations of consistent of protein levels and other typical characteristics of what you normally use. Approach the grain with a fresh perspective and see where it takes you….more like an artisan and figure out how to coax the best out of the grain.
So many wholegrain recipes we find in baking books still have huge amounts of white flour and too much sugar to cover the blandness of the white flour. There is no need. For our work, we have found that pure whole grain sweet baking has become an easy access point for people to take a chance and instantly notice the extra depth wholegrain adds. We are continually working on developing more sweet and savoury pastries, cakes, cookies every market season.
So when I start to make something out of wholegrains, it’s a process. First make it tasty, then it is the challenge of making it better and then how can I add more buckwheat, bran, rye or more barley. Our goal is to push people’s expectations on what wholegrains can do, how they taste and showcase that a regional grain economy is possible and desirable.
Developing formulas that highlight whole grains and give the texture and flavor I want and customers will like, takes time. I play around with multiple grains for different tastes, searching for a different shade of brown (the wholegrain world can be awfully monotone), and to highlight a certain sweet or savory filling. We are constantly tweaking and changing and experimenting with different ratios of wholegrain flours, fats and liquids to achieve what we want and to suit each grain’s personality..our own little 50 shades of brown….and it is not just flavor, it is visual, it’s colour, it’s texture. So when I am buying buckwheat I want to know how dark is it, how earthy is it and how will this change what I am already making? We use barley in three forms- regular, malted and toasted. We are starting to play around with other malted and toasted grains. I want to start smoking some green wheat and other grains, too. The possibilities are endless.
Our customers know what we offer tastes better and is better for the local economy, better from a nutritional standpoint and offers a personal connection in their shopping, but it can be hard to get them to understand that we all need to make a living and that means charging a certain price. We are all in this together- we need to be generous with each other and share our formulas, experiments, marketing and mistakes. It is the only way to push this movement forward. Through transparency and sharing we raise the level of everyone’s baking and inspire each other to push harder, be more creative and more successful.
Local Grains: Why Bother?
Why we need to rethink our grain sources
Sourcing quality local grains is a pain in the ass. At this point in Ontario, the networks are not set up to just call a distributor and have a variety of grains delivered to one’s door or find on the supermarket shelf. There are bits and bobs around- Red Fife can be found at Whole Foods and some local grocery stores.
For our business, there are three farmers I can call and have grains delivered and between the three, it’s a pretty good spread from Ethiopian purple barley to Hard Red Spring. But still….I cannot find a good quality hard white wheat flour, find out what variety of spelt I am using (there are lots of varieties!) or have the grains milled in a consistent fashion and most don’t come with some baking clues, like moisture content or protein levels. And sometimes, crops fails and that means no more emmer for the year, or a tractor breaks down or there is a personal crisis and no deliveries. Local chains are resilient, but still fragile.
So why bother? I can call and get generic roller milled white flour that is the same from batch to batch year to year at half the cost. I can get wheat from the prairies and wheat from the states. So much choice, right? But local is the only choice. I am choosing to participate outside the commodity system, support real farms that aren’t hostages to agri-business and their investors’ demands. I am choosing regional grains grown by organic/regenerative farmers. I am choosing to make regional whole grains more accessible by forging bonds with farmers, millers and breeders.
I don’t care if the grain isn’t suitable for baguettes or croissants or large holed- hearth loaves. I will not support non-organic/commodity grains because that means supporting corporate agri-businesses that use pesticides, fungicides and other destructive inputs. That means putting farmers in debt to pay for these things that only benefit the corporations and screw over the farmer, leading them down the rabbit hole of expanding monocultures and pursuing ever diminishing efficiencies. It takes away our autonomy through centralization, commodification and lack of choice, while destroying our environment.
In this industry, we need to remember that we are all more than bakers, miller and farmers. We are activists, architects of a new economy and bringers of change. We need to honor all the work that goes into producing a vital local food. We need to listen to the grain and go beyond achieving the familiar and create our own visions and possibilities. Let’s strive towards 100% local and 100%wholegrain. Local as way to express terroir and move away from commoditization and homogeneity.
We are creating the building blocks for a true local grain revolution. We have a duty to use all of our facets and talents to pass this onto the next generation. If we don’t constantly push ourselves, then we are just bakers and I don’t want to be just a baker. I want to be part of the bigger picture of local wholegrains and regenerative food systems.
Take The Whole Farm Challenge
To support sustainable farming we need to move beyond wheat
A while ago, in an instagram post I asked “Why reach for white flour when you can use wholegrain? Why reach for wheat when you can use rye, oats, barley, quinoa or buckwheat? “ How did we end up here; where flour means flavour-less white stuff?
Verlyn Klinkenborg wrote in an essay, “Large-scale industrial agriculture depends on engineering the land to ensure the absence of natural diversity.” (Link here) Klinkenborg goes on to talk about how in the name of uniformity (which agribusiness sees as efficiency) hills are leveled, streams filled, plowed over and wetlands drained to meet the parameters for mono-culture crops. This degrades the soil and therefore requires petroleum inputs to replace lost nitrogen and other soil and plant nutrients, while still the soil erodes. When we eat these chemically enhanced crops, we are eating petroleum.
Chemical Fertilizers are petroleum based and taken up by the plant. Fertilizers from animals on regenerative farms are grass based and cover crops used as green manure, are just soil waiting to happen.
So how does this tie to whole farm baking? Stay with me.
Because nature is against uniformity, it will find a way to subvert our latest engineering in GMO crops (just look at the emergence of Round-up resistant weeds) and the bad farming practices that accompany them. We need to farm with nature in mind.
Regenerative agriculture is a system that literally regenerates top soil (the key to plant health and nutrition in plants), creates high biodiversity and resistance to climate change, maintains watersheds instead of draining them, and is essential to carbon sequestration by capturing CO2 in the soil. Farmers will plant rye, buckwheat as green manure, inter-crop oats and legumes or have dozens of plants varieties, like vetch and radish, as cover crops to protect soil from blowing away and to replenish the soil for future wheat or corn plantings. These crops can also be harvested, so the farmer can get more income from each field. The crop rotation also plays an important role in disrupting pest and weed cycles. And that is just on the surface. The real magic happens underground.
Nutrients return to the soil through a symbiotic relationship between plant roots and mycorrhizal fungi. The fungi receive sugar from the plant roots, created by photosynthesis, and give back water and minerals to the plant roots, increasing nutrition and health of the plant. (Applications of Round-Up (glyphosate) has been shown to interfere in this key symbiotic relationship to the plant’s detriment.) By not plowing, but using a no-till seed drill the soil stays intact and can hold a lot more water, which is needed in times of drought and also in intense rains, the soil will soak up much more soil than impacted \-chemical laden fields. Whew, still with me?
Bottom line, regenerative agriculture means diversity. Diversity means more than monoculture. Therefore, the farmer will have more than one crop to offer and it’s my job as a baker to support all the crops- Whole farm baking. Baking with buckwheat, oats, rye and legumes. Buying honey from the bees on the farm and seeing what else in grown/raised on the farm that I can use. At this point, we use more rye and buckwheat than wheat and that’s how I want it to be. And using all of it in it’s whole grain form and not sifted to no-purpose white stuff.
A Brief History of Wheat
Our grains are certified organic and traceable back to the grower.
This timeline will most likely change slightly as new information comes out, but hopefully gives the general idea of wheat’s evolution.
Rye isn’t on this timeline, but so far history suggests that it appeared during the Neolithic age in Turkey and again in the Bronze Age (1800-1500 BC), in Europe.
Rye • Secale cereale
Grown by Peter Leahy of Merrylynd Organics in Peterborough, ON
North America is finally having a rye-naissance!
“Rye belongs to the grass family Gramineae and the genus Secale. The most common cultivated species is S. cereale, which is presumed to have evolved from the wild perennial grass of the species S. montanum. Cultivated rye contains seven pairs of chromosomes belonging to a single genome designated by the letter R… Rye cross-pollinates extensively and is, therefore, difficult to maintain genetic purity”. (W. Bushuk, in Encyclopedia of Grain Science, 2004)
Rye moved into Europe from Turkey. There have been traces of rye in Europe dating back to the Bronze Age, but it really did not fully take root until around the 5th century, when the weather turned wetter and chillier, especially in the Northern climes of Germany, Baltic and the Nordic countries, known as the “Rye Belt.”
Known as a “grain of poverty”, due to it’s hardiness and ability to grow in poor and sandy soils, is a great crop for Ontario, with our interminable winter. Planted in the fall, it provides soil cover over winter, helping prevent erosion and protection against winter- tolerant weeds and early spring weeds. Ready by late June/July, well before spring wheat, giving farmers an early income and some security in case the spring crops fail. Once harvested, the stems can be used as hay or if it fails, it provides nitrogen for spring crops, like barley.
There are many varieties of rye, but not even close to wheat’s 20,000 varieties. Some of the better known/interesting varieties are Sangaste from Estonia, known for it’s flavour and larger kernel size and Midsummer/ Stauderrogen/Kaskiruis from Finland/Russia. It’s a rye that is a two year crop. Sown in mid-summer for animal grazing, it will re-sprout during the winter and ready to gather that second spring. Amazing! Because this type of rye grows in clumpy bunches, leaving lots of empty space in between, it is ideal for inter-cropping for a regenerative farming system. I wish farmers were growing this kind of rye here. Supposedly, the taste is incredible and it has better baking qualities. A study from the University of Copenhagen found it to have protein levels between 17-22% and more micro nutrients/anti-oxidants than other grains.
“Rye… is known to be more nutritious than wheat. …Rye is a great source of dietary fiber, phosphorous, magnesium, vitamin B1, and has a ratio of 4:1 magnesium-to-calcium ratio. Due to its high-fiber content, rye can help prevent spikes in blood sugar and is beneficial to those with diabetes. The fiber content of rye has also been shown to reduce the symptoms of those suffering from irritable bowel syndrome. Rye's ability to provide extra soluble and insoluble fiber, as well as increase colonic butyric acid production, can help prevent colon cancer. As it provides water-binding, noncellulose polysaccharides, rye can promote the sensation of fullness and help normalize bowel function” (Aman, Andersson, Rakha, & Andersson, 2010).
Rye is not a wheat, but does contain gliadin, one of the protein strands that make up gluten. It is gliadin that celiacs react to. Gliadins are important for helping the dough rise, but don’t seem to play a role in dough strength, which is one of the reasons that rye dough is not elastic and comes apart easily. Rye also contains pentosans, which inhibit the formation of gluten. Along with starch, the pentosans bind with water and give rye it’s distinctive viscous quality. This helps explains why rye breads are more often in pans than a free form hearth loaf. We love rye for it’s sticky moist crumb, notes of honey and hay and it’s assertive tang in German rye breads.
We try to bring in as many varieties as possible- Sangaste, Hazlet and Musketeer are the main single varieties that are available to me. Most of my rye is an unnamed variety grown by Peter Leahy of Merrylynd organics.
Red Fife • Triticum aestivum
Grown by Peter Leahy of Merrylynd Organics in Peterborough, ON
The Queen of Ontario grains, Red Fife is originally from Eastern Europe (Ukraine, known as Halychanka) and arrived in Ontario in the 1840’s. It is considered a landrace wheat, meaning it more genetic variability than a cultivar, that allows it to adapt to local conditions. As opposed to most wheat cultivars, that are meant to be the same where ever they are grown.
Red Fife belongs to Tritcum Aestivum, a member of the grass family and is a hexaploid wheat: 6 sets of 7 chromosomes, two sets each, from three different species: T. urartu, Aegilops speltoides and Aegilops tauschii.
David Fife is considered the father of Red Fife. Read the story here. It was grown across Canada, until it was replaced by an earlier ripening wheat, named Marquis, a cross between Red Fife and Calcutta. Red Fife is a common genetic parent in many breeding lines, especially in the U.K. It has not been hybridized or developed, so it is still similar to the wheat from the 1840’s. We love it’s distinctive sweet flavour and deep reddish hue. It is grown as a spring wheat here in Ontario, but can be adapted to winter. It is a stunning wheat that grows over a meter tall with a slender tall seed head topped by three awns- the super model of wheats.
Red Fife disappeared after it was replaced by Marquis, but was revived by Sharon Rempel and Marc Loiseau in the late 1980’s. It now mostly grown as a specialty crop by primarily organic farmers here in Ontario and the prairies.
Spelt • Triticum spelta
Grown by Peter Leahy of Merrylynd Organics in Peterborough, ON
We cannot sing the glories of Spelt loud enough. It is delicious, it has fabulous baking qualities for bread, pizza and pastries and a nuttier, sweeter flavour than most winter wheats. Spelt has been around for a long time. It is a hexaploid wheat (six copies of it’s seven chromosomes=42 chromosomes), like regular wheat (triticum aestivum). Like all hexaploid wheats, it must be dehulled before milling.
Grown as a winter wheat, Spelt is ideal for Ontario, as it can handle a late frost and can grow in soil that is too poor for a good quality bread wheat. Spelt, once incredibly popular in Europe, fell out of favour once wheat breeding programs increased the yield of bread wheat and as mills became more industrialized and got rid of the their de-hulling equipment. It has been experiencing a resurgence since the 1980’s, with a reviving of landrace varieties, such as Oberkulmer Rotkorn. There are breeding programs in Germany dedicated to spelt improvement, so we can only hope that it travels across the Atlantic and catches on here.
Domesticated Emmer
• Triticum Turgidum subsp. dioccum
Grown by Peter Leahy of Merrylynd Organics in Peterborough, ON
My personal favourite for baking. Emmer’s spicy grassy flavour really shines through in pastries like Gateau Basque and madeleines.
An older variety of wheat, known as a tetraploid wheat (four copies of it’s seven chromosomes=28 chromosomes). Emmer is a hulled wheat, therefore it must go through a de-hulling process to remove the glume (husk). Emmer is from the fertile crescent area, with wild emmer most likely originating in Turkey, but this is up for debate. Grains of wild emmer have been found at archealogical sites dating back over 10,000 and one site dating back over 15,000 BC. it seems to have become domesticated around 10,000 BC. There are multiple landrace varieties of this wheat (landrace meaning wheat that has genetically adapted to it’s specific area over a long natural selection). Brown, black and white emmer
Like most older wheats, emmer is high in gliadin, one of the protein strands that make up gluten. Wheats with a high gliadin component result in stickier doughs and denser crumbs (gliadin gives viscosity and extensibility to a dough- allowing it to rise, but it is the glutenin that gives the dough strength and elasticity). But genetics play a smaller role in gluten quality, than how it is grown. With proper farming and good nitrogen in the soil, the baking quality of emmer can be very good.
In North America it is considered a specialty crop, accounting for less than 1% of wheat grown. It is making a resurgence and is still popular in Italy and Turkey, where it is used in bulghur wheat production. Usually grown as a spring wheat (it acn be grown as a winter wheat, too), is has some resistance to stem rust, a common problem in damp areas, such as Ontario, it seems to do well here. Though the yield is significantly lower than modern cultivars (less than half) and due to it’s excessive height it has poor straw stability and often falls down in the field after heavy rains or wind. So it will most likely remain a specialty crop.
Buckwheat • Fagopyrum esculentum
Grown by Chris Wooding of Ironwood Organics, in eastern ON
NOT A WHEAT!! NOT A WHEAT!! NOT A WHEAT!! (KEEP REPEATING!) It’s actually a pseudo-cereal, related to rhubarb and sorrel. It is in the knotweed family (Polygonaceae). It is often lumped in with cereals (which are grasses), as it is most often used like a grain due to it’s high starch content. The word is a transliteration from the German: Buchweizen (beechwheat) because of it’s resemblance to the beech nut. In the late Spring, is has delicate pink or white flowers and can have a red stem. Bees love it. Buckwheat honey is a taste not to be missed.
There are three recognized species of buckwheat: common, Tartary and notch-seeded. Buckwheat has pointy triangular hulls that flake off easily and are often ground up in the flour itself. If it is de-hulled before milling, the flour is a light green to creamy tan. If the hulls are mixed in, then it is grey to dark charcoal coloured.
Like rye, buckwheat doesn’t mind a sandy soil. It is a great rotation crop, as it has high nitrogen levels and if often used as green manure. Buckwheat is a fast maturing crop and can be used a replacement crop for a failed spring wheat. It has a very low per acre yield and requires a fair amount of work to remove the stems from the seed. If it isn’t cleaned right away, the seeds can take on an off-taste. It is our most expensive grain by far.
I love buckwheat for it’s deep earthy flavour and it’s ability to be used in all baked goods, especially cakes and as a scald in breads. It pairs well with other strong flavours, such as coffee, ginger and molasses. We use mostly Japanese buckwheat from Ironwood organics.
Flint Corn • Zea Mays
Grown by Shelley Spruit of Against The Grain Farms in Ottawa, ON
This Italian heirloom variety, called Spanish Red Corn, is a lovely red and yellow colour and we mill it in-house for maximum flavour. We use it in muffins, the oatcakes, cookies and pie crusts. We use it for ricotta muffins, cornmeal poundcake, in pie crusts and maple corn cookies, along with it’s pals rye and barley.
Flint corn gets it name from the hard as flint glassy cover that protects the small soft inside. It comes in a range of colours and pattern variations. Flint cobs are long and skinny, as opposed to the stocky stubbiness of dent and the fat sleek cobs of sweet corn. Flint corn is one of six types of maize, the other five are: sweet, dent, popcorn, flour corn and pod. It is usually dried before use, unlike sweet corn. Flint corn has a shorter maturation time, which makes it ideal for our long winters and shorter summers. I just like the idea that corn, a plant native to the Americas, went all the way to Italy and back again. A good reminder that there has been a global food system for a long time.
Rouge de Bordeaux Wheat
• Triticum aestivum
Grown by Chris Wooding of Ironwood Organics near Gananoque, ON
Considered a heritage wheat, this awnless hard red grain from the 1800’s, comes from the Bordeaux region in France. It is primarily a bread wheat, but like many European wheats has a lower protein content compared to North American hard red Spring wheats, and terrific flavour. I love it in shortbread and pastry dough. It can be grown as either a Fall or Spring planted wheat.
Chris has been growing out this wheat from a handful of seeds and now has enough to supply many bakeries here in Ontario. It is a gorgeous light copper colour with high quality protein and a robust earthy flavour.
Ethiopian Purple Barley
• Hordeum Vulgare
Grown by Shelley Spruit of Against the Grain Farms in Ottawa, ON
This is a two row hulless (naked) barley with a deep purple hue that adds a pop of colour and flavour to any baked good. We sprout and toast the kernels for use as a soaker in our rye breads (it tastes and smells like Grape Nuts!) and we also grind some of the malted kernels for extra flavour in our malted chocolate chip cookies and other products.
The importance of barley in feeding early societies cannot be under estimated. Like emmer and einkorn, barley has been found at early Neolithic sites and flatbreads made from wild barley have been found at a dig in Jordan dating back 14,000 years. It is considered one of the first domesticated grains. It is a member of the grass family (Gramineae) and is a diploid species with 14 chromosomes.
The two main types of barley are two-row and six-row. The two row one is the main one for malting, as it is has a higher sugar content and lower protein than the 6 row, though some craft breweries do use the 6 row. But barley needs to be used for more than malting and animal feed! We need to bring it back to our plates! Barley is high in nutrients, fiber and beta-glucan, which may help lower cholesterol. Plus it tastes sweet and nutty. Barley grows exceptionally well in Ontario.
We use barley flour in crackers, cookies, pastry crusts……We love it toasted, like Tibetan tsampa, to really bring out flavour. Malt it, roast it, sprout it, grind it, barley is a great tool for increasing flavour in any baked good.
Shelley retired from farming 2022, so I am searching for another barley source. Luckily, I bought lots of barley kernels from her and have given some to other farmers to grow out. Fingers crossed!
Winter Rose Red Fife
• Triticum aestivum
Grown by Chris Wooding of Ironwood Organics near Gananoque, ON
This Red Fife variety, bred by Chris is more of a pastry wheat, than bread wheat. He grows it as a winter wheat, and it is a much lighter colour and flavour than regular Red Fife. Named after his mother, Rose, this might be my favourite Red Fife, ever. I use it in our hand pie dough and shortbreads. Especially delicious in our 84% butter shortbread…..
Oats • Avena Sativa
Our oats come from A &E Fine Foods and are grown and processed by M. Gaudreau in Quebec
Our only non-Ontario grain, coming from our neighboring province, Quebec. They are thick cut, super-sweet and slightly malty. We throw them in our granola, oatcakes. breads, granola bars and cookies. We grind some to make oat flour for our vegan cookies and toast some for porridge in our breads. Oats are an important crop for regenerative/rotational farmers for it’s ability to prevent soil erosion, attracting beneficial insect diversity such as aphid eating ladybugs and to prevent fertilizer runoff. It can be sown late summer for winter cover and fodder for animals, but for it to be a harvestable crop, it must be sown in the Spring.
Oats are meant to be grown in cooler climes- the yield and weight per kernel is higher and since they have a higher tolerance than wheat for rain and cold, it suits our landscape.