The Oldest American Wheat is Coming Back | PARAGRAPHIC

Hayden Flour Mills is reviving forgotten native grains from the ground up in the desert.Show more

Learn more at: https://haydenflourmills.com/

Heritage Grains are grains that were grown before the introduction of intensive, scientific plant breeding in the mid 1900s, while Ancient Grains date back to almost 10,000 years ago. Both are rich in flavor and dense in nutrients unlike the modern over-processed wheats we’ve become accustomed to.

White Sonora is the oldest wheat variety in North America. Spanish missionaries, who needed wheat for their communion bread, brought White Sonora to North America around 1640. This disease-resistant, drought-tolerant wheat variety was first planted as a rotation crop to corn in the Sonoran Desert, near the present-day United States-Mexico border. It’s sweet flavor and nutty texture lent itself to a traditional southwestern diet, and eventually gave birth to the first white flour tortilla.

Stone milling is an old world process where the whole grain is crushed into flour by rotating stones. Unlike modern roller mills that tend to shave off and discard the flavor and nutrients found in whole grains, the process of stone milling in small batches preserves the natural oils and nutrients of the grain, creating a more flavorful, nutrient-dense product.

These hand-cultivated flours are never bleached or enriched, and always freshly milled.