Uses | Characteristics

Einkorn

Origin (taken from Alternative Wheat Cereals as Food Grains: Einkorn, Emmer, Spelt, Kamut, and Triticale - G.F. Stallknecht, K.M. Gilbertson, and J.E. Ranney)

Einkorn is thought to have originated in the upper area of the fertile crescent of the Near East (Tigris-Euphrates regions). Wild einkorn Triticum boeoticum includes both the single grain T. aegilopoides and the two grain T. thaoudar and T. urartu. Cultivated einkorn is T. monococcum, and like wild einkorn has the genome constitution AA .

Einkorn became widely distributed throughout the Near East, Transcaucasia, the Mediterranean region, southwestern Europe, and the Balkans, and was one of the first cereals cultivated for food.
Harlan (1981), cites information suggesting that wild einkorn grain was harvested in the late Paleolithic and early Mesolithic Ages, 16,000-15,000 BC. Confirmed finds of wild grain remains have been dated to the early Neolithic (Stone Age) 10,000 BC. (Helmqvist 1955; Zohary and Hopf 1993). Cultivated einkorn continued to be a popular cultivated crop during the Neolithic and early Bronze Age 10,000-4,000 BC giving way to emmer by the mid-Bronze Age. Einkorn cultivation continued to be popular in isolated regions from the Bronze Age into the early 20th century. Today, einkorn production is limited to small isolated regions within France, India, Italy, Turkey, Yugoslavia and Australia (Harlan 1981; Perrino and Hammer 1982).

Historically, einkorn was cultivated in cool environments on marginal agricultural land through the Mid-east and southwestern Europe. Einkorn is still cultivated in harsh environments and poor soil in Italy (Perrino and Hammer 1984). Einkorn selections produced protein and yield equal to or higher than barley and durum wheat when grown under adverse growing conditions
(Vallega 1979).

Uses | Characteristics