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  • From: "Wyatt Jones" <wyatt_jones AT netzero.com>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Heritage Wheat
  • Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 14:59:59 -0500

Hello All
 
I've been trying to decide what kind of heritage wheat to grow and where to find seed. I was supposed to be able to get Turkey Red from a local farmer who was giving me the hard sell but after 2 months of giving me the run around he now says he can't sell me any.   I know turkey red used to be a standard until the more modern wheats took over but there are thousands of different kinds out there.  Rouge de Bordeaux sounds like a great one, although I've heard its actually a mix of three types, I've also heard it was rather mild.  Others like Banatka lodge way too easily and we have some rather stiff winds her in SW Ohio.  Supposedly Ble de Radon is great but I only found that in France,  I found a government site where one can get so many kinds its incredible, GRIN, the National Recourses Genetic Program http://www.ars-grin.gov/.  But it doesn't really give much information on the varieties and there is so much there its easy to be overwhelmed, for example they have 5 varieties of Rouge de Bordeaux.  I also looked at the Heritage Grain Conservancy but the more I look into that the more I get the impression that they are somewhat sloppy breeders and the fact that they want a 10% royalty for heritage genetics reminds me of Monsanto's piracy of public domain genetics.  The fact that they charge $25 for an ounce of seed seems common practice but since I would have to grow it out and select it, it seems I'd be doing as much as they have since I can get seed from the government I could be more sure of but you can only get 5 g of each kind  from GRIN.  Other places like the Sustainable Seed Company also have seed but then again only in very small qtys ($8 for 25 seeds of Red Clawson, one of the wheat varieties they used to grow around here).  I realize I'll probably have to grow a small plot to get enough to plant 10 acres but it would be nice to get at least a couple pounds of seed to get started, especially since I'll probably have to do some selecting based on what does well here.  Its like pulling teeth getting any info on these varieties and what one does get seems rather vague, especially when it comes to cultivation, wind resistance disease environmental concerns harvesting issues etc.  Some of these grains don't thresh well by hand, others are too fragile to thresh by machine.  I could just wing it but it seems like flying blind given all the issues involved. 
 
Anyway I'm looking for a heritage winter wheat that is resistant to lodging, great flavor, good bread baking quality, decent yields and disease resistance. preferably one that can handle somewhat wet conditions on occasion as I do live in Ohio.  Turkey Red seemed like a safe bet as others are growing it, albeit in very small amounts, here and I gravitated towards it based on apparent availability but I'd like to explore other possibilities since there is a lot else out there and as it turns out getting Turkey Red seed in any qty is going to be as difficult as anything else. 
 
Thanks
 
Wyatt
 
Jamestown, Ohio
 


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