Wheat

Triticum aestivum, T. durum

grain

The grain of common wheat, born some 8,000 years ago from a cross between a cultivated wheat and a wild grass, goatgrass: 95% of the wheat produced, and the most widely grown crop in the world. Whole, its bran brings fibre and arabinoxylans that the gut flora ferments.

Origin

Fertile Crescent

Season (United States)

all year round · grows in your region

Preparation

Mostly eaten as flour — bread, pasta, semolina, biscuits; as whole grains, it cooks for about forty minutes in boiling water after soaking overnight, or ten minutes if pre-cooked, like rice.

Molecules

In small amounts, not counted Inositol

Did you know?

Wheat reached North America with the Spanish missions of the 16th century; the great prairies have only exported it since the 1870s.