Wheat is one of the five principal foods feeding the world today. There have been ~100,000 varieties of bread wheat that have been selected by farmers in their fields over centuries since wheat was domesticated about 10,000 years ago.
Red Fife wheat is a landrace, meaning there is a uniform shape but genetic diversity in the seed population; and it is highly adaptable. History tells us that Red Fife (named for its colour and the farmers that first grew it in Canada) came to David & Jane Fife in the Otonabee region of what is now south central Ontario near Peterborough. Wheat grain was loaded onto a boat in the harbour at Danzig, Poland; and a small amount of seed was then collected from the ship in harbour at the Scottish city of Glasgow and sent to the Fifes in 1842. Because of striking similarities, Red Fife is believed to be a descendant of the Ukrainian Halychanka wheat. The Fifes soon found that their selected wheat was hardy and resistant to the plant diseases of the time, and that it boasted exceptional flavour. Within decades, Red Fife became the most widely grown bread wheat throughout Canada and the northern United States until the early 1900’s when it was replaced by it’s progeny, Marquis wheat which then set a new standard for Canadian wheat. David Fife was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1963 for the discovery of Red Fife wheat.
Thanks to a few seed savers, farmers, millers & bakers Red Fife wheat is back! We are founding members of the Prairie Red Fife Organic Growers Co-operative Ltd.
Red Fife's milling and baking qualities make it ideally suited for traditional artisan baking. Artisan Red Fife bread has a hay-yellow crumb with an intense scent of herbs coloured with a light acidity. The nose has notes of anise and fennel, and in the mouth, the bread is unexpectedly rich with a slightly herby and spicy flavour.
People with wheat intolerances have found that they can consume Red Fife wheat!
Great grandpère François-Xavier's 15 person threshing crew, undated, but very likely Red Fife or Marquis wheat.