Utrecht Blue emmer
$4.00
(Triticum dicoccum)
Heads with long awns turn a lovely grey-blue as they mature. Probably the most beautiful grain we grow. Named for Utrecht in the Netherlands, where some say it was cultivated into the early 1900s. However, I find this story curious: why would the Dutch have grown this hulled grain when easier-to-use hulless wheats were available? I have heard that emmer straw makes superior thatch, and the Netherlands has had and continues to have one of the Western world’s most vibrant thatching industries (they’re now doing vertical walls on new apartment buildings as well as more traditional roofs), so that may explain this grain’s history. If you want to try avant-garde thatching, or just old-fashioned straw weaving, this may be the grain for you! 130 days to maturity.
In stock
Plant 1/2-2” deep, a few inches apart; preferably in rows 7-9” apart, but can also be broadcast and raked to cover. Plant in the spring as soon as soil can be worked. Harvest when seed is at ‘hard dough’ stage, dentable by not easily crushed; make into sheaves and stook to cure until fully dry and hard. Thresh and winnow; emmer must also be dehulled before eating, but is best planted still in its hulls.
To use straw for weaving, harvest when topmost joint in stem is still a little green.