Amber Eden Grain and a Memorable Harvest

On a collecting trip to a popular Persian grain market over a century ago, near the location of ancient Sumer in present Iraq, a USDA official found a vendor of an exceptional bread wheat said by locals to have come from the Garden of Eden. The American likely thought it an entertaining story with little significance. But the grain was tested soon after it arrived here in the US and found to be something indeed spectacular—a hard white landrace (pre-hybridized heritage) wheat. Virtually all wheat flours used for breadmaking come from hard red grain which is healthy when milled as whole grain to preserve the nutrient-dense germ and bran as well as interior endosperm. For this reason whole grain breads tend to be dark compared to white breads typically made from those made from flour that has been sifted to remove much of the kernel.

The existence of this exceedingly rare hard white “Eden” grain offered the prospect of whole grain nutrition in a light-colored loaf! And after considerable searching facilitated by friends at WSU’s Bread Lab in Mt. Vernon, our Palouse Colony-Ethos Stone Mill team was able to procure a sample from a European seedbank. After several years of patient increase, we were pleased to harvest a sufficient crop of this remarkable grain this summer that we will soon be marketed as flour.

Harvesting Hard White Amber Eden Wheat
Palouse Colony Farm (August 2021)

The Bible and other ancient literatures open with divine creation of the world and living things including seed-bearing plants. Genesis 1:11-12 states, “And God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees….’ And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds…. And God saw that it was good.” The concept of Creator as First Agrarian offers two related guiding principles for humanity’s sacred relationship to the land: (1) The earth and its bounty is to be treated respectfully (e.g., Psalm 24:1); and (2) people are to cultivate it responsibly (Genesis 2:15). Grains, grapes, and olives—the so-called Mediterranean triad—dominated the Hebrew diet (Deuteronomy 7:12-13, II Chronicles 31:5-6) and provided a wide range of flavorful, nutritious foods made from flour, wine, and oil. So heavy was their reliance on bread that the Hebrew term for it, lehem, is synonymous with food in general (Genesis 28:20, Ruth 1:6, Psalm 132:15).

Amber Waves of Eden Grain

Persian Grain Market (c. 1900)

“There’s only one thing better than a good story, and that’s a good true story!” sagely observed legendary Pikes Place Market restaurateur, brewer, and entrepreneur Charlie Finkel of Seattle. We were discussing the various benefits of heritage grains like flavor and nutrition, and Charlie pointed out that cultural values also greatly contribute to culinary significance. Like fine wines, the evocative names of many heritage varieties suggest fascinating worldwide associations and distinct flavors as with Yellow Breton wheat, Scots Bere barley, and the Himalayan Brown oat. But the context of our visit about “true stories” was how a USDA “plant explorer” came across an exceedingly rare hard white grain while on an expedition to Persia over a century ago. This historic region covered present Iran and portions of Iraq and included the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, long considered the Mesopotamian cradle of civilization.

The American had visited a Persian grain market famed for quality and variety, and asked his host for a sample of their finest wheat. He was directed to a vendor and asked him what made his wheat so special. The visitor learned that its name apparently said it all—the grain came from the land of Eden. The skeptical scientist may well have dismissed such a fanciful story, but nevertheless retrieved a sample for the USDA seed collection at Beltsville, Maryland, where it was stored with countless others. That might have been the end of the story had not some agricultural experiment stations in the western US a few years afterward sought to identify the baking characteristics of several recent grain introductions. As is commonly known, the finest yeast breads are made from hard red wheats, while pastry and flatbread flours are made from soft white varieties. Only in exceedingly rare instances does Mother Nature create a hard white wheat which makes possible a lightly colored whole grain loaf.  The variety found at the Persian bazaar, they discovered, was a hard white wheat which they further identified as an “excellent miller.”

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World Grains Map (1907)

The wonderful flavor and appearance of hard white baked goods have long made it a highly desirable flour, and it typically fetches premium prices although virtually all hard white bread flours today are modern hybrids bred primarily for greater yields. We undertook a worldwide detective hunt for the Eden grain found in Persia over a century ago which was no longer available from the USDA. We eventually located a sample from a European germplasm center and set about with a few precious seeds several years ago to carefully increase it to the point that we able to plant about one acre this past spring, which should yield about a ton of when ready to harvest (and we’re harvesting it now as this is written!).

Sowing Palouse Heritage Amber Eden Wheat (Early May 2020)

Grandpa’s Weed-pullers (July 2020)

Amber Eden is a beautiful grain with large beardless heads, and to ensure a clean crop we’ve twice enlisted the valued help of young grandsons Zachary, Micah, and Derek to keep any other plants from growing in the field. This old-fashioned process is called “rōgging,” a term that comes from German roggen, or rye. Back in the day rye was sometimes mixed with wheat and barley so the stalks were pulled out by hand to keep crops pure. The boys are anxiously awaiting the fruit of their labors in the form of a freshly baked loaf after harvest, and Zachary intends to bake it himself, something Grandpa never considered doing at that age.