The Grass Doctor

WHEAT Triticum Wheat is the grass most often baked into bread

Summary: WHEAT Triticum Wheat is the grass most often baked into bread or shaped into pasta around the world Within the genus Triticum are contained 30 species which further separate into 40 000 kinds of wheat Botanists have traced to Turkey the origins of einkorn the wild grass believed to be one of the ancestors of all modern varieties of cultivated wheat Wheat growing probably began about 10 000 years ago and after production wore out the land in the earliest Middle eastern agricultural societies Egypt became the world s grain superpower An ideal crop for Egypt wheat had a life cycle that corresponded perfectly with the annual flooding of the Nile River The floods laid down a nutrient rich layer of soil along its banks in which farmers scattered seeds The efforts of only a portion of the population could provide food for all and even resulted in grain surpluses The Egyptians also made early use of yeast the single celled organism that makes bread dough puff up China is the world s major wheat producer and its largest importer of wheat Argentina the U S Canada France and Australia are big producers and exporters

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