While visiting Masseria Salamina, I asked proprietor Philipo about the local wheat and spelt which goes into all of the region’s yummy breads and pastas. They taste so much better than at home and just seem healthier. The breads and pasta in Puglia all have a wonderful texture and delicious flavor. At the masserias we visited, it was commonplace to see attractive containers of wheat, other grains and nuts lying around.
Philipo explained that he thought that what we were doing with our grain in the US was crazy (GMO, pesticides, toxins, not being able to plant your own seed for the next crop…). He proceeded to introduce me to the way grain is supposed to be and taste. He took some of his masseria’s grain out of a bin and ground it for me, allowing me to taste it in all its glory. It was really easy to do, FUN and the ground wheat was absolutely delicious to the taste.
What exactly have we done with our wheat in the US??? While our wheat is not GMO (just hybridized), it is standard practice to drench fields of wheat (and other grains) with a chemical cocktail called glyphosate (brand name Round Up, produced by Monsanto), which causes our wheat and other grains to produce a higher yield. Hundreds of millions of pounds of this chemical are used on our grains in the US every year, without regard to the potential health risks. In March of this year, the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), unanimously agreed to re-classify glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans”, and several countries have banned its use – but not the US. Any wonder why we are having so many health problems with our wheat and are experiencing an increase in the incidence of cancer? For more information, check out Dr. Hansen’s article in the Huffington Post, Monsanto, Round Up and Junk Science.
So, I have decided to take matters into my own hands and do 4 things:
- Buy my own organic whole wheat. The one I am most curious about is Einkorn, an ancient wheat dating back over 10,000 years. There are many places to buy organic Einkorn, such as Einkorn.com. Apparently this wheat is very easy to digest.
- Buy a grain grinder and try grinding my own wheat at home. Pleasant Hill Grain has several grinders like the one Philipo & I used together.
- Purchase 2 cookbooks, available through Amazon, to help me make the transition to this different wheat, as apparently it has different cooking properties. 1) The Einkorn Cookbook: Discover the World’s Purest and Most Ancient Form of Wheat: Delicious Flavor – Nutrient-Rich – Easy to Digest – Non-Hybridized and 2) Einkorn: Recipes for Nature’s Original Wheat.
- Stop eating processed foods – especially any processed food that is non-organic. This is just stupid.
I can’t wait to play with this new wheat in my kitchen and I look forward to experiencing its health benefits and improved digestion.
By the way – check out what Stephen Jones is doing at The Bread Lab in Mt. Vernon, Washington, published in the New York Times Magazine last weekend in an article called Against the Grain.
