An Italian Farmer Planted Mystery Seeds from His Attic—and Grew a Biblical Seven-Eared Wheat
An Italian Farmer Found Some Unknown Seeds in His Attic and Planted Them
Claudio Grossi found an old sack of seeds in his attic, left by his great-grandfather, and scattered them on a manure pile. They sprouted a towering wheat with seven ears per stalk and multicolored kernels—a match for the seven-eared grain in Pharaoh's dream in Genesis. Dubbed grano del miracolo, the ancient Triticum turgidum proved drought-hardy, needed no fertilizer, and turned out lower in gluten and richer in iron and phosphorus than modern wheat.
I thought it was a freak of nature.
- comrade1234
Many farmers here in Switzerland grow urdinkel - ancient spelt. In the USA most farmers grew it also until around the 1920s but then a new wheat came out that was easier to process. Spelt has thicker hulls and wears down the mill faster so the mills switched to the new wheat and the farmers all had to switch too.
Based on the name I think ur (ancient) Dinkel (spelt) is even older than regular spelt but I'm not sure. All I know is that it makes great crackers but terrible pasta and ok bread but not great.
- skmurphy
key points about wheat Gross (the Italian farmer) discovered in 1990 his attic:
+ It fared better during droughts, growing so tall that it overshadowed the weeds. It didn’t need fertilizer or herbicides.
+ It's height can be a liability. Heavy winds, rains and hail can make the tall stems flip over before the grain ripens, ruining harvests.
+ Working with the lab of Teofilo Vamerali, Perobelli determined that the grain was Triticum turgidum—literally “swollen wheat” in Latin. Known in English as “poulard wheat,” it had originally evolved in what today are Turkey, Egypt and other nearby Mediterranean countries. And searching agricultural references, Perobelli found that it had been grown in Italy, too, until farmers shifted toward higher-yield commercial varieties. That solved the mystery of the seed bag stashed away in the attic: It had survived because Grossi’s grandfather saved some of the heritage grains.
- timr
> It also had more arginine, an amino acid that children need to grow.
My kingdom for even a tiny bit of scientific literacy amongst people who are reporting on science.
Not only is this absurd ("children" need all amino acids to grow...as does anyone else), arginine isn’t even one of the essential amino acids. Your body makes it unless something is seriously wrong.
- tmaly
This is interesting for people with gluten allergies, maybe there is a way they could one day consume the ancient wheat.
- mattoxic
Damn, I was hoping for Triffids