Organic Appalachian Hard White Winter Wheat Berries
Grown at Weatherbury Farm
Available Seasonally. Currently Not Available.
Wheat needs extra cleaning to make it berry grade. To do this economically, we need to clean a ton at a time and store it in a cold storage building. Since we don’t have a cold storage building (yet), we are experimenting with cleaning a 1000lbs of the Appalachian White Hard Winter Wheat to see how it goes.
Weatherbury’s Appalachian Wheat is whiter in color and milder in flavor than Maxine Wheat.
Organic Appalachian Hard White Winter Berries
Use in grain bowls, salads and soups.
As they are berry grade, home millers can grind them in their home mills.
Wheat berries will be sold until we are sold out. However, if wheat berries still remain at the beginning of June they will be milled into flour, because of insect pressure in warm weather.
2lbs* ($5.36); 5lbs* ($10.10); 25lbs ($42.76)
Available Seasonally. Currently Not Available.
* 2 and 5 pound bags are packaged in re-sealable bags .
At Weatherbury Farm, we’re unique — trace your Weatherbury Farm Appalachian Hard White Winter Wheat Berries to the field where it was grown!
Appalachian Wheat Harvest at Weatherbury Farm
Weatherbury Farm’s Appalachian Wheat Tracker traces the Appalachian Wheat that is cleaned to berry grade back to the field where it was grown.
Weatherbury Farm is one of a handful of farms that produces local organic grain berries. But we take it a step further and provide, through our grain tracker, complete traceability — information & pictures of how, when, and where the grain was grown.
When you serve Weatherbury’s Appalachian Wheat Berries as a delicious hot cereal, use them as rice or in making soups, salads etc. or if you are a home miller and mill the berries into flour, you can pull out your cell phone and click on Weatherbury’s Appalachian Wheat Tracker and let folks see the wheat in the field.
Using Weatherbury Farm’s Organic Appalachian Hard White Wheat Berries
Weatherbury’s wheat berries offers a new dimension for breakfast and for use in other recipes. You’ll enjoy their mild creamy flavor and chewy texture.
The terrior of the soil gives our wheat berries their wonderful flavor.
How to substitute Weatherbury Appalachian Wheat Berries in your own recipes
Appalachian Hard White Winter Wheat Berries grown at Weatherbury Farm
Appalachian Wheat berries can be used in any recipe calling for wheat berries or farro.
They make an healthy overnight breakfast cereal and can be cooked like rice or risotto for a recipe or used in a salad.
Since they are cleaned to berry grade, they can be used by home millers
When you use Weatherbury’s Appalachian Wheat Berries as a breakfast cereal, in a salad or in baked goods, or mill them in your home mill, you are sure to get comments about their great flavor. You needn’t tell the family that they are how nourishing they are.
Benefits of Wheat Berries
Wheat is an excellent source of protein, dietary fibers, manganese and selenium. Wheat’s fiber boosts the digestive process and improves overall metabolism. The vitamin B content of wheat provides you with energy. Additionally, the complex carbohydrates in wheat keeps you feeling fuller longer and give you energy over a longer period.
Managanese, which wheat is rich in, acts as a co-factor for greater than 300 enzymes involved in the production of insulin and glucose secretion. Wheat’s betaine content prevents chronic inflammation, which is a key constituent in rheumatic pains and diseases. Additionally, its anti-inflammatory property reduces the risk of ailments like osteoporosis, heart diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive decline, and type-2 diabetes.
And best of all, it tastes great.
Storing Appalachian Whole White Winter Wheat Berries
There are no preservatives in our berries. Please refrigerate. If you will not be using the berries immediately, please store in the freezer especially in warm weather.
More Information about Appalachian Wheat Berries
History of Wheat and Appalachian Wheat
While hard wheat was not historically grown in southwestern Pennsylvania, Appalachian wheat flourishes in our region. The eastern United States is not hospitable to growing hard wheats because the area’s humidity increases the incidence of disease in the fields. Developed by several USDA breeders in conjunction with North Carolina State, Appalachian wheat was bred at NC State specifically for this region. Here at Weatherbury Farm, we started growing Appalachian wheat in 2016 because our customers asked for a whiter, milder wheat flour.
In 2023, we first cleaned the wheat to berry grade.
Today’s wheat ( Triticum aestivum ) can be traced back to domesticated forms of spelt (T. spelta) . Because spelt does not thresh free from the hull, farmers/ plant breeders in the 1800s selected and planted spelt grains that did thresh free and by continuing to do this over a period of time, a free-threshing wheat developed.
Appalachian Wheat growing in a Weatherbury Farm Field
In the early 20th century, the laws of Gregor Mendel were applied to wheat breeding. This produced wheats with a thick bran bred to withstand chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides and could stand up as well to the harsh roller milling processing necessary to produce loaves and loaves of “white bread.” Because of global market pricing, breeders of this type of wheat strive to have the lowest cost of production possible.
For both organic systems and also stone milling of flour, wheat varieties with a thinner bran work better than the above modern wheats with a hard bran. Not all breeders look to breed wheat that will stand up to roller mills and produce “white bread.” It is those wheats that are used in today’s organic production.
Appalachian Wheat — the grain
During harvest, the wheat threshes free of the chaff from the grain head. Thus, it doesn’t require an extra dehulling step like spelt or einkorn.
To bring the Appalachian Wheat to berry grade, the wheat grains are screen cleaned and then run over a gravity table to clean out grass seed and straw.
