Ancient Grains: Wheat

On my way to work in the mornings, the flaxen grasses dance with the wind and draw my mind to their mysteries. What was it like to be a prehistoric woman, collecting grains from these graceful stalks. Would I find enough to feed my family? Would I have to prepare the grains so they were digestible?

What if I lived in the Karacadag region of Southeastern Turkey around 10,000 years ago? This is the area believed to be the origin of our modern wheat through domestication of Einkorn and Emmer wheat. So here I am in Karacadag, trying to feed my family. I'm gathering berries and nuts and greens with the other women of my community.

I notice some golden seeds scattering the sunlight and drawing me toward them. My friends and I collect as many as I can find. We take them home and everyone likes their taste. We are just chewing them at first. The following spring when I'm gathering food with my friends, we find some more of the golden seeds. We take them home and eventually we have the idea to plant them so that we will not have to wander far to find some of them.

Year after year, we gather seeds from our plants, but the best seeds are large and puffier that other seeds. So we select the large seeds and plant them. Eventually all of the plants have large seeds. The seeds that stay attached to the plants are easier to collect, and the larger seeds seem to stay attached. We begin selecting for size and "staying attached." Eventually we have wheat with traits for which we have selected. These may have been Einkorn or Emmer wheat.

Archaeologists have found evidence of Einkorn and Emmer domestication from the Karacadag area around 10,000 years ago. After chewing on the whole seeds, people probably began experimenting by grinding the seeds and making powder or gruel which they ate. If the "gruel" was cooked over a flame, perhaps a flatbread was developed.

Yeast is found everywhere, and it is not hard to imagine some yeast landing on some flatbread and causing the flatbread to become puffy. The people liked the result and tried to create the same "puffy" bread again and again. This is how I imagine the origin of bread as we know it. How do you imagine the origin of bread?