wheat

[cowboy66]

I have been looking for a place to buy non-hybrid, non-gmo, original strains of wheat ( organic of course ) any help or links would be appreciated.

[Shamrock1121]

For general kitchen use, or for seed wheat?

That's a tough one. With all the varieties of wheat out there (I live in the middle of Kansas Wheat Country), I suspect they are all hybrids.

When it comes to hard wheat, you may be able to locate some of the Grandaddy of all winter hard wheat, Turkey Red. It's more of a novelty wheat these days. I've seen it shown at the Kansas State Fair. I suspect some of the ancestors of the early German/Mennonite settlers in this area, who brought Turkey Red Wheat to Kansas, still grow some small fields of it.

The original Turkey hard red winter wheat has three genes for red bran, so it's VERY dark and VERY acidic-tasting. Most people wouldn't like the tast of this potent hard wheat today. If you use it, I'd suggest a soaking flour or sponge method to get a more mild-tasting bread from it.

Modern varieties of hard red winter wheat have only one or two of these genes for bran color. While white wheat varieties have none of the genes for bran color (think of white wheat as the albinos of the wheat family).

Prior to the 1870's the most common wheat was soft wheat, so hard wheat varieties were developed around that time.

Have you considered spelt (aka dinkel) and kamut - the ancient varieties of wheat? Or even earlier grass-grains Einkorn and Emmer (closely related to durum).

Spelt is the ancient version of soft/hard wheat, while kamut is the early version of durum wheat and neither are hybridized and are generally organically grown. Purity Foods, Inc. was the early developer of spelt.

Spelt has enough gluten in it to make bread. While spelt has 5,000 parts per million (gluten protein), wheat BEGINS at 50,000 parts per million and go up from there. That means spelt bread doesn't require as much kneading to develop the gluten as bread made with wheat flour would and you won't get those high-rising, fluffy loaves.

I'd suggest checking with the Wheat Research Center at Kansas State University, or the Kansas Wheat Commission.

Good luck in your search!

-Karen

[cowboy66]

I live in Kansas on the east side of cowley county! I have not been able to find anything non-hybrid :( *I am wanting seed wheat so we can plant 5 or so acres and have our own flour.
I have called to places around dodge city, liberal, hutch and wichita and can not find anything yet ! I figure everything is crossed with monsanto's GMO crap which I will have nothing to do with. I find it really sad that we live dead center in the grain belt and I can not find non-hybrid and non-gmo wheat seed.

[Shamrock1121]

Check with the County Extension Ag. Agent in Newton, KS. *They may know where some Turkey Red seed wheat is.

How about heirloom seeds?

Bountiful Gardens
http://www.bountifulgardens.org/products.asp?dept=4&pagenumber=2&sort_on=&sort_by=

http://www.rickharrison.com/texts/info/seedsources.html

-Karen

[cowboy66]

thanks for the help, I will give those places a try :)
only other thing I could think of was to go to Yoder and ask around up there or maybe lindsborg.

[Shamrock1121]

thanks for the help, I will give those places a try :)
only other thing I could think of was to go to Yoder and ask around up there or maybe lindsborg.

Check with Jako, Inc. - just outside of Yoder (Hutch. address). Here's their web site: http://www.jakoinc.com/index.shtml
They are into "natural" stuff and may know a source for you.

I bet they mostly grow Jagalene, Jagger or Overley wheat in the Yoder and Lindsborg areas. Jagger is a variety that was developed by conventional plant breeding. I met the daughter of the farmer who developed it for K-State, years ago in Hutch. at the State Fair.

They've been keeping track of wheat breeding and seed selection since the mid-1940's.

Jagger, Karl 92, and Overley are wheat varieties that were developed by KSU, and are commonly grown around here, while Jagalene was developed by AgriPro (the AgriPro would be a red flag for me!).

Don't forget, you'll want a wheat variety that will have good bread-making and milling qualities.

The most wheat is grown in Sumner Co., other top 10 wheat-producing counties in Kansas are Mitchell, Saline, Dickinson, Rice, McPherson, Reno, Kingman, Harper and Sedgwick.

Other source you might try:
James P. Shroyer, Dept. of Agronomy, 785/532-0397, jshroyer@ksu.edu

2007 Kansas Wheat Seed Book - http://kscroptests.agron.ksu.edu

FYI - Keep in mind the difference between conventional wheat breeding and genetically modifying.

-Karen

[cowboy66]

ok, thank you for the great information and advice. I understand about regular breeding and gmo differences.
I will start my conquest now :) thanks for the places to start looking.

[flourgirl]

We sell certified organic wheat and flour. :)