Organic Appalachian Hard White Winter Wheat Berries

Grown at Weatherbury Farm

Wheat needs extra cleaning to make it berry grade. To do this, we clean the wheat with our optical color sorter.

Weatherbury’s  Appalachian Wheat is whiter in color and milder in flavor than Maxine Wheat.  It has the lowest protein of all of our bread flours.

Organic Appalachian Hard White Winter Berries

Appalachian Hard White Winter Wheat Berries • Weatherbury FarmUse as a overnight breakfast cereal, in grain bowls, salads and soups.  Can be  cooked like rice or risotto for a recipe or used in a salad.

As they are berry grade, home millers can grind them in their home mills.

2lbs* ($5.99); 5lbs* ($11.99)
Limit 10 lbs. per customer/order period

Please place your order for all of Weatherbury’s products, including Wheat Berries, through our on-line shop.
Current product availability  can also be checked at the shop.

* 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 • Weatherbury Farm Grain Tracker 2021

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 as a hot breakfast cereal and for use in other recipes.  You’ll enjoy their mild creamy flavor and chewy texture.

As they are berry grade, home millers can grind them in their home mills.

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 • Weatherbury Farm

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.

With our new color sorter, we are now able to clean 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 Background

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.

Other grain berries available from Weatherbury Farm:Grain Berry Family • Weatherbury Farm