Sonora -- a California heirloom wheat

The wheat is almost shoulder high

Sonora wheat

Slice of Sonora bread with spinach saag

   sauteed leeks and fennel

   sauteed spinach

   carrots

   buckskin beans

   tomato paste

   curry spices

   olive oil and salt

Hi Winnie and Steve,

What a dry spring and early summer it has been for us.  The dogs sniff around the meadows with dry and hardened grasses.  This resulted in Luna getting a fox tail up her nose which meant a trip to the vet, but luckily the vet found it.  The new wheat fields are loving the recent warmth.  The first field which Gene planted in the winter will probably be harvested in about 8 weeks.  While we do not yet have our first harvest, we were able to get from a farmer friend 50 lbs. of her Sonora wheat.  I experimented with that Sonora yesterday in bread baking.

I'm telling you this wheat has such good taste!  I've used it often for pie crust, biscotti and zucchini bread.  Our friend Monica Spiller is an expert in Sonora wheat and has trial fields in other heirloom wheats also (sustainablegrains.org). Monica said Sonora wheat came to Mexico and spread with the establishment of the missions up into California. Apparently, it lost favor with the invention of the roller mills which do a better job with "hard red wheat."  Sonora is a "soft white wheat" -- although Monica can describe it so much better. Anyway, this morning's toast was so good. This is the wheat that is also grown at Pie Ranch -- our friend Jered introduced it to us.  His old Allis Chalmers combine is here for some repairs so both our farms can harvest the wheat soon.

Thinking of you.  Donna