Taking a shot at going with the grain

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What was I thinking?

Amber waves of grain is what.

Why that?

Well, if I knew that about myself I probably wouldn’t be staring at a packet of spring wheat (approximately 380 seeds) and wondering where I was going to plant it, would I?

I could blame it on this past winter and the cold, barren months of waiting.

I could blame it on the enticing picture in the Johnny’s Selected Seeds catalog showing the golden heads of wheat in the foreground as a mechanical harvester works in the distance.

I could blame the description itself, with the folks at Johnny’s saying the Polk variety was the company’s favorite because it made a “wonderful” high-gluten bread flour and that it was almost lost in the 1990s when it was replaced by varieties with higher yields. Johnny’s decided to thwart that ending by growing it again themselves.

Or I could say it’s because I foresee myself standing by a tiny patch of wheat rustling in the August breeze, imagining it to be a whole field swaying to and fro, as crickets hum and heat shimmers in the air. I watch the heads dip and rise,

and I feel connected to the past and future through one of the oldest foods known to mankind, a crop with the power to feed the world.

I would be correct – on all counts.

Wheat’s origins are murky, typical of food staples that have been around for a few thousand years. It is not native to the United States – it didn’t arrive until 1602 when colonists started to set up camp on the East Coast – but can be traced to the Middle East, specifically the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys in modern Iraq. It was there, according to an Iowa State University report, that “primitive relatives” of today’s wheat varieties were found in some of civilization’s oldest excavations. The time? About 9,000 years ago. The Nile River valley’s connection to wheat goes back to 5000 B.C., with the creation of leavened bread stemming from this region.

Today, only China and India produce more wheat than the United States. In our country, Kansas is top dog in wheat production, harvesting 344.4 million bushels of wheat in 2001. According to Planet Wheat at Cyber Space Farm (www.cyberspaceag.com), that is enough to make 24.1 billion loaves of bread.

I have no intention of competing with that. I only have 380 seeds, for heaven’s sake.

Planet Wheat goes on to say that there are six classes of wheat grown in the United States: hard red winter wheat, hard red spring wheat, soft red winter wheat, durum wheat, hard white wheat and soft white wheat. Polk, the variety I purchased, is a hard red spring wheat that is planted in the spring. Like hard red winter wheat, it is high in protein and gluten, which makes it the best candidate for yeast breads. The soft wheats are used mostly for pastries, cakes and flatbreads. All-purpose flour is actually a mix of the soft and hard wheats. The hardest wheat is durum, which is used mostly for making pasta.

From those six classes of wheat, Planet Wheat says, there are 30,000 varieties from which to choose.

I panicked at one.

And I certainly didn’t intend to write that I was growing wheat this spring, because it seemed sort of silly. Planting peanuts one year and sweet potatoes another was fun; wheat is just strange.

Perhaps it is because wheat is basic. Ubiquitous. Taken for granted. Part of nearly every meal for most people.

So what am I to do with 380 wheat seeds, especially since I don’t plan to grow enough to mill for my own loaf of bread?

If I wanted, I could use it as a green manure; it is almost always listed with cover crops in seed catalogs because wheat can be cut back – before the heads develop – and then plowed under.

I could use it as an ornamental. With whiskery anthers covering every sun-kissed head, wheat is a showy grass that would make a striking display alone or with dried flowers.

I could thresh and thrash it about to get the kernels, which could be pounded into cracked wheat that I could add to any bread dough I might be making.

Yes, I could do all of that.

And I could see how wheat grows. I could feel how sturdy the stalks, how feathery the heads. I could find out how it smells after a rain or in the midday sun.

And one day, as crickets hum and heat shimmers in the air, I could stand beside it, imagining it to be a whole field swaying to and fro, and decide the time is right to bring in my sheaves.

Seed sources

Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 955 Benton Ave., Winslow, ME 04901-2601; telephone: 207-437-9294; www.johnnyseeds.com.

Fedco Seeds, P.O. Box 520, Waterville, ME 04903-0520; www.fedcoseeds.com.

Janine Pineo is a NEWS copy desk editor and systems editor. Her e-mail address is jpineo@bangordailynews.net.