While many farmers are hoping this recently arrived fine weather continues to dry out and warm up the soil so they can start planting, some crops have been in the ground since September. Winter wheat is planted from September to December in the Northern Hemisphere while spring wheat goes into the ground in the spring for fall harvest. The winter varieties sprout before freezing occurs, then becomes dormant until the soil warms in the spring. The crop must be subjected to a period of dormancy before being able to flower, but on the other side of that event, it must have sufficient time to lay down an adequate root system to survive the winter, and seed depth for this crop is a key issue. If the roots are not deep enough, like other shallow-rooted plants, the crowns will heave in the repeating cycle of freezing and thawing in the winter and spring. Ideally, winter wheat is planted in mid to late September, and is ready to be harvested by early July.
Wheat is one of the main crops in ideal Ontario crop rotation cycles, which start with corn, followed by soybean and then wheat, according to Thompson Elevators Crop Consultant Adam Shea of Pontypool. Last fall, ideal harvesting conditions allowed farmers to bring in their soy crops early, allowing plenty of winter wheat to be sown. In fact, it is estimated that last fall Ontario farmers planted 1million acres in winter wheat, almost twice the area planted in 2015.
From the perspective of the consumer, hard winter wheats have higher gluten protein content than other wheats. They are used to make flour for yeast breads, or are blended with soft spring wheats to make the all-purpose flour used in a wide variety of baked products. Soft wheat is used for specialty or cake flour. Durum, the hardest wheat, is primarily used for making pasta. Almost all durum wheat grown in North America is spring-planted.
If you are a serious baker, you care about the characteristics of your flour, which obviously stem from the wheat from which it was ground. Baking bread? You want hard flour, likely a winter variety as it has a higher protein. Modern artisan bread flour is milled from hard red winter wheat, producing flour with a protein content ranging from11.5 to12.5 percent, yielding breads with crisp crusts and those delicious, irregular holes. Cake and pastry makers prefer soft flour, usually produced from spring wheat creates a more delicate and tender crumb. The hardest wheat is Durum, which is used in pasta production. Most durum wheat produced in Canada is spring-planted. All-purpose wheat sold in the super market is a blend of both types for use in a variety of applications.
Red Fife wheat has a particularly important significance to the Peterborough area. It was developed in 1842 by Scottish immigrant David Fife, whose experiments to develop a strain of wheat with disease resistance that would provide consistent yields resulted in this variety. A bread variety, its name stems from the original red colour of the kernel and the farmer who developed it. The seeds originated from modern day Gdansk, Poland, and the legend has it that from the original 1842 crop, all but one plant died over the winter and was threatened by the appetite of a cow, but with the remaining seeds grew plants with higher rust resistance, yield and baking quality than had been previously produced. By 1860 it was the dominant variety grown and set the Canadian Wheat standards for more than 40 years, and to this day, most bread wheats produced in Canada can trace their genetic lineage to Red Fife wheat.
Back to those serious bakers. It seems that we’ve come full circle in the wheat department, as in many other areas. Historic wheat varieties are making a comeback, and Red Fife wheat is one of the “newest” taste sensations in the Canadian artisanal bread world. It has been available for sale in organic food stores and even in mason jars at the Peterborough Farmers’ market. Bread produced with Red Fife flour is reported to have crisp crust that has a red cast to it.
Commercial users are very specific in their wheat purchases. As a result, they purchase only wheat of a specific variety, Identity Protected, or IP varieties, where the source of the grain can be tracked and demonstrated to be from a specific named seed such as current favourites Branson or Eva which consistently provide the characteristics they seek. Crop consultants like Adam Shea act as the liaison between the grower and the corporate buyer- ensuring there is a market for the crops grown by local producers. He explains the buyer is looking for a specific milling quality in the flour, which will result in a characteristic in their products that are appealing for the consumer. Think of the snap when you break an Oreo cookie- this is determined not only by the recipe, but on the qualities of the flour used. This explains why some no-name products using the same recipe may not be exactly the same, or why the bags contain more broken cookies that the name brands. Preferred varieties evolve, as nature finds new ways to make proven varieties vulnerable to new pests and diseases, so a new and improved seed comes into favour.
While we may not speak directly to the farmer, we speak to everyone in the food chain as we spend our grocery money, because after all, money talks. But it`s not only about money. Speaking directly to people in our food industry reminds us that most of them are working towards making food production sustainable from an environmental, economic and social perspective.
