I’ve been reading about ‘ancient grains’ for a while. The name itself amuses me. Ancient grains are einkorn, emmer, and spelt, generally speaking. They are considered to be precursors of modern wheat and are sometimes recommended for people who are wheat sensitive (— whatever that means — I don’t think they would help actual celiacs.) Other grains such as amaranth and teff are more niche and difficult to find.

Naturally, since I write stories, I try to find ways to incorporate whatever else I’m thinking about into said stories. In this case I have a character in my current novel-in-progress who is a farmer’s wife. I began to ask myself if I could think up a story line for her that included any of the grains I’ve been reading about. So instead of asking myself whether this place or that sold spelt flour I began paying attention to slightly wider concerns such as milling and ‘heritage’ grains rather that just ‘ancient’.

Bluebird Grain Farms in eastern Washington state has a nice lineup of ancient, organic, and heritage grains. https://bluebirdgrainfarms.com/ They mill flour fairly close to the moment when you ask for it so it should be superfresh. The comments on their sales page suggest that this is true. (Of course) They have a nice basic lineup of hard and soft flour. But they aren’t a good prototype for my farm family since the Bluebird farm is in a very dry area and my novel is set in a pretend valley of the Ohio river. I don’t know how much acreage there is either but I suspect it’s more than I would have allotted to my fictional family. Hmmm…

Grand Tetons Ancient Grains is found here. https://www.ancientgrains.com/ They are another family farm and mill, and they source ancient grains that they don’t necessarily grow. They carry Khorasan, a Mesopotamian grain, which might be the precursor of durum wheat. At this moment they are out of amaranth and teff. Amaranth is not strictly speaking a grain but the Aztecs used it in grain- like ways and even King Arthur flour has an entry on using Amaranth flour. Teff is used in Ethiopia to make a bread called injera and it is listed as being gluten-free. But it is gray. Not interested.

Grand Tetons Ancient Grains also sells little home mills. Maybe not little. It’s a big thing for them. This is an interesting consideration for my story or for my life. Except… I don’t want to grind my own flour. If I were thirty years younger, maybe. Not now.

https://sunriseflourmill.com/collections/heritage-wheat-baking-flour These guys have a particular idea about milling flour and making the best organic and healthy whole wheat flour that is still light and fluffy. Thinking my farm wife could possibly have a mill in her back pocket….

https://bartonspringsmill.com/collections/kits-and-bundles This place has fascinating wheat varieties that are not ancient: Marquis, Purple Fife, Red Turkey, Rouge de Bordeau Stardust, etc. These wheat varieties come from France or Ukraine or Turkey or were bred in this country. I realize that I really don’t understand the difference between hard red wheat and soft white wheat, but just reading about all these different varieties of wheat is intriguing. This miller thinks that using Marquis wheat, for example, would solve any wheat related problems that emmer or einkorn would also solve. Might be worth a try. My farm wife needs to think about these different options.

https://centralmilling.com/product/organic-whole-khorasan-flour/ Central milling just gets right down to selling pounds and pounds of either wheat berries or flour. Not helpful for story but definitely something to keep in mind.