About Wheat – history, facts and lore
Wheat is an ancient grain with uses ranging from bread to noodles to glue. Imagine the excitement when the first human discovered it. Perhaps she was in a large grassy meadow one summer evening and cut some of the tall golden grasses to make a bed for her night's rest. When she awoke the next morning, having tossed and turned on the fresh-cut stalks, she found some loose grains under her "pillow." As the sun rose on the horizon, she decided to put some in her mouth. And the rest is history. Wheat grows all over the world in every season. It doesn’t need much water – and it’s root system reaches as deep as thirty feet into the earth. One grain of wheat can produce eight or more heads with over 40 seeds per head. And the grains harvested from one acre -- which is about the size of a football field – can provide a family of four with flour to make enough bread for ten years.
To better understand the qualities of wheat and how it grows, we invite you to try the activities listed on the left.
539 |