Winter Wheat, ripening from bluegreen of spring grass to golden yellow of summer flour and bread.
(Tritcum aestivum) North America.
Planted after the soybean and corn harvest in the Fall, usually with a minimum of tillage, a flatland field
of wheat is a beautiful sight at any season. Green all winter, the wheat really starts to grow in April
and May. The wheat pictured above will be ready to harvest in two or three week's time.
The Summer Fire Festival, around the 1st of August, was the time of celebration of the grain
harvest. Traditionally, the first loaves of bread would be baked to make the occasion. Imagine
that! It would be wonderful to see these seasonal festivals make a comeback. Standing before
a field of 100 hectares of uniformly almost ripe wheat in hot and dry prairie country, breathing
in the distinctly earthy aroma of this king of grasses, I can almost smell the ovens baking . . .>
| To see a larger landscape view of the same field, go to Heartland, sea of wheat,
featured two weeks ago. |
