Don’t know if you were as puzzled as I was when I noticed a loaf of bread I’d unwittingly paid too much money for contained “ancient grains.”
Yesterday, when I had a lovely BLT at the Green Kitchen (est’d 1931) on Second Avenue, I had the usual choice of breads, chose whole wheat and informed the genial waiter about my “ancient grains” conundrum. He never heard of them, either, and went off to apply Google.
How many days can small bits of mystery pop up and irritate a human brain before that IB succumbs to a search engine? It took me two days before I asked Perplexity, “What are ‘ancient grains’?”
Here is the answer with a helpful list of those grains.
Ancient grains are grains and grain-like seeds that have changed very little through breeding over the last several hundred or even thousands of years, unlike modern wheat, corn, or rice which have been heavily modified for yield and processing.
Common examples include:
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Wheat relatives such as spelt, einkorn, emmer (farro), and Khorasan wheat (Kamut).
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Other cereals like millet, barley, sorghum, teff, and sometimes oats and certain heirloom rices.
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“Pseudocereals” (not true grasses) like quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, and chia, which are used much like grains.
Erm. Will I now have to ask Perplexity “What IS einkorn, anyway?” Teff? Amaranth? Kamut? Will I have to try them?
I’m done with ancient grains for today, except I had my “sometimes oats” for breakfast, as always. They tasted brand new.
