Emmer wheat

Appearance

Like einkorn and spelt wheats, emmer is a hulled wheat. In other words, it has strong glumes that enclose the grains, and a semibrittle rachis. On threshing, a hulled wheat spike breaks up into spikelets. These require milling or pounding to release the grains from the glumes.

Wild emmer wheat spikelets effectively self-cultivate by propelling themselves mechanically into soils with their awns. During a period of increased humidity during the night, the awns of the spikelet become erect and draw together, and in the process push the grain into the soil. During the daytime, the humidity drops and the awns slacken back again; however, fine silica hairs on the awns act as hooks in the soil and prevent the spikelets from backing out. During the course of alternating stages of daytime drying and nighttime humidity, the awns' pumping movements, which resemble a swimming frog kick, will drill the spikelet an inch or more into the soil.

Naming

First use: 1908
Origin: species of wheat, from German ''Emmer'', variant of ''Amelkorn'', from ''amel'', "starch", from Latin ''amylum''.

Food

Emmer's main use is as a human food, though it is also used for animal feed. Ethnographic evidence from Turkey and other emmer-growing areas suggests that emmer makes good bread , and this is supported by evidence of its widespread consumption as bread in ancient Egypt. Emmer bread is available in the Netherlands and Switzerland.

In Italy, whole emmer grains can be easily found in most supermarkets and groceries, emmer bread can be found in bakeries in some areas, and emmer has traditionally been consumed in Tuscany as whole grain in soup. Emmer has also been used in beer production.

As with all varieties and hybrids of wheat, emmer is unsuitable for people with gluten-related disorders, such as celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity and wheat allergy sufferers, among others.

Evolution

Wild emmer is native to the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East, growing in the grass and woodland of hill country from modern-day Israel to Iran. The origin of wild emmer has been suggested, without universal agreement among scholars, to be the Karaca Dag mountain region of southeastern Turkey. In 1906, Aaron Aaronsohn's discovery of wild emmer wheat growing in Rosh Pinna created a stir in the botanical world.better source needed Emmer wheat has been found in archaeological excavations and ancient tombs. Emmer was collected from the wild and eaten by hunter gatherers for thousands of years before its domestication. Grains of wild emmer discovered at Ohalo II had a radiocarbon dating of 17,000 BC and at the Pre Pottery Neolithic A site of Netiv Hagdud are 10,000-9,400 years old.

The location of the earliest site of emmer domestication is still unclear and under debate. Some of the earliest sites with possible indirect evidence for emmer domestication during the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B include Tell Aswad, Çayönü, Cafer Höyük, Aşıklı Höyük, Kissonerga-Mylouthkia de and Shillourokambos. Definitive evidence for the full domestication of emmer wheat is not found until the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B , at sites such as Beidha, Tell Ghoraifé, Jericho, Abu Hureyra, Tell Halula, Tell Aswad and Cafer Höyük.

Emmer is found in a large number of Neolithic sites scattered around the fertile crescent. From its earliest days of cultivation, emmer was a more prominent crop than its cereal contemporaries and competitors, einkorn wheat and barley. Small quantities of emmer are present during Period 1 at Mehrgharh on the Indian subcontinent, showing that emmer was already cultivated there by 7000-5000 BC.

In the Near East, in southern Mesopotamia in particular, cultivation of emmer wheat began to decline in the Early Bronze Age, from about 3000 BC, and barley became the standard cereal crop. This has been related to increased salinization of irrigated alluvial soils, of which barley is more tolerant, although this study has been challenged. Emmer had a special place in ancient Egypt, where it was the main wheat cultivated in Pharaonic times, although cultivated einkorn wheat was grown in great abundance during the Third Dynasty, and large quantities of it were found preserved, along with cultivated emmer wheat and barleys, in the subterranean chambers beneath the Step Pyramid at Saqqara. Neighbouring countries also cultivated einkorn, durum and common wheat. In the absence of any obvious functional explanation, the greater prevalence of emmer wheat in the diet of ancient Egypt may simply reflect a marked culinary or cultural preference, or may reflect growing conditions having changed after the Third Dynasty. Emmer and barley were the primary ingredients in ancient Egyptian bread and beer. Emmer recovered from the Phoenician settlement at Volubilis has been dated to the middle of the first millennium BC.

Emmer wheat may be one of the grains mentioned in ancient rabbinic literature as one of the five grains to be used by Jews during Passover as matzah . However, this depends on the meaning of the Hebrew term ''shibboleth shu'al,'' which is uncertain and debated. The matter is further complicated by the cultivation of spelt in Israel of Biblical times and onwards . However, it is fairly certain that spelt did not grow in ancient Israel, and emmer was probably a significant crop until the end of the Iron Age. Likewise, references to emmer in Greek and Latin texts are traditionally translated as "spelt," even though spelt was not common in the Classical world until very late in its history.

In northeastern Europe, emmer was one of the most important cereal species and this importance can be seen to increase from 3400 BC onwards. Pliny the Elder, notes that although emmer was called ''far'' in his time formerly it was called ''adoreum'' , providing an etymology explaining that emmer had been held in glory , and later in the same book he describes its role in sacrifices.

Uses

Emmer's main use is as a human food, though it is also used for animal feed. Ethnographic evidence from Turkey and other emmer-growing areas suggests that emmer makes good bread , and this is supported by evidence of its widespread consumption as bread in ancient Egypt. Emmer bread is available in the Netherlands and Switzerland.

In Italy, whole emmer grains can be easily found in most supermarkets and groceries, emmer bread can be found in bakeries in some areas, and emmer has traditionally been consumed in Tuscany as whole grain in soup. Emmer has also been used in beer production.

As with all varieties and hybrids of wheat, emmer is unsuitable for people with gluten-related disorders, such as celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity and wheat allergy sufferers, among others.

Cultural

Along with einkorn wheat, emmer was one of the first crops domesticated in the Near East. It was widely cultivated in the ancient world, but is now a relict crop in mountainous regions of Europe and Asia.

Emmer is considered a type of farro food especially in Italy.