They Plant Ancient Grains To Preserve Them

They Plant Ancient Grains To Preserve Them CROPS New Techniques Rick Schroeder and Steve Gardipee started raising ancient grains to feed their families better Now they raise them to help preserve the unique varieties by selling seed to other gardeners and small farmers “We bought a small amount of different seeds to plant in our gardens ” says Schroeder “They did exceedingly well and we expanded the small plots Now we are trying to encourage other people to plant small plots for personal use ” Schroeder and Gardipee formed God’s Ancient Wheat to promote the grains Currently they are working primarily with banatka a rare wheat variety from Hungary and emmer which originated in Turkey They are also working with kamut einkorn and a durum wheat from the Bethlehem region believed to date back to biblical times “We planted 1/4 acre of banatka the first year and have expanded each year since ” says Schroeder “It’s now our largest crop and we’ll be planting 5 acres this spring As far as we know there’s only one other farmer planting it in the U S ” Schroeder and Gardipee like banatka for its drought tolerance and standability “It survived our drought last year and stood up to unusually severe hail storms and heavy rains that beat commercial wheat into the ground ” says Schroeder “It was a tough year for wheat but the banatka just shrugged it off ” Schroeder says banatka stands from 3 to 5 ft tall with stalks that are pencil sized Heads can be from 3 to 5 in long with each seed in its own pod There are 20 to 30 seeds in a seedhead “We harvested 1 000 lbs from about 2 3/10 acres ” he says Banatka is their largest crop followed by emmer They are planting about 2/3 acre of it and 1/2 acre of einkorn with other grains in smaller plots “A 10 by 20-ft plot of banatka would produce enough for personal use ” says Schroeder “The flavor is unbelievable and wheat flour doesn’t compare It won’t rise like commercial wheat as it has smaller amounts of gluten You have to cook it differently ” Currently their company is only offering banatka and emmer seed Due to limited availability both are priced at $1 for approximately 20 seeds or an ounce approximately 600 seeds for $20 “We are just selling a little seed to get more people to try it ” says Schroeder “We limit sales to a few ounces each ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Rick Schroeder 6081 Cliff Lane Temple Texas 76502 ph 254 986-2655; chopper10@vvm com; www ancientwholegrain com

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