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On Your Farm: Rare and Ancient Cereals

Rare and Ancient Cereals

14/08/2016

BBC Radio 4 - On Your Farm, Rare and Ancient Cereals

Ancient cereal varieties are undergoing a revival. Sybil Ruscoe meets two pioneers.

Far from being a page in the history books, the growing of ancient cereals is undergoing a revival. Sybil Ruscoe travels to Doves Farm in Berkshire to meet two pioneers of spelt.

Ancient wheat grains such as spelt, emmer and einkorn can trace their first use by man back nearly 10,000 years. With a need to feed an expanding human population, modern high yielding varieties of grains developed which today can produce 8 tonnes per hectare. It would be easy then to think that ancient grains have long been superseded in commercial farming. Not so it seems; far from being a footnote in historical texts the growing of these grains is attracting interest again.

In 1978, Michael and Clare Marriage grew a single field of organic wheat as a trial. In the four decades since then, Doves Farm has become one of the foremost organic growers of ancient grains in the UK. What is the appeal of these ancient grains, are they just a tasty novelty or do they really have something fresh to offer the modern consumer?

Sybil Ruscoe travels to Berkshire to see how Doves Farm mill their own flour on the farm and hears why they have begun producing organic and 'Free From' food products, many using these ancient grains. 


Producer: Andrew Dawes.

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