Red Fife Wheat
Red Fife is a variety of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) that David Fife and family began to grow in 1842 In Peterborough Ontario. Legend goes that a friend of Mr. Fife collected a sample of seed from a ship in the Glasgow port. Red Fife was the first wheat to be named in Canada and many modern varieties of wheat owe their genetics to Red Fife.
The seed might have originated in Turkey, then moved across the Black Sea to the Ukraine where Mennonite farmers grew it, then seed was shipped to Glasgow, where a friend of David Fife's found it, sent a sample of seed to Fife in Ontario.
Mr. Fife grew out the seed, shared the seed with other farmers and called the wheat Red Fife because the kernels were red and his name was Fife.
Red Fife wheat is a living artifact that is part of Canada's living history, cultural and agricultural heritage.
Red Fife seed arrived in Canada when Canadian lands were being opened for producing wheat. Red Fife seed adapted to a great diversity of growing conditions across Canada. It was the baking and milling industry standard for 40 years from 1860-1900. Plant breeders around the world continue to use the genetics of Red Fife to make new varieties of wheats.
Read more about Red Fife Wheat: Visual Description, Red Fife Feeds Canada From 1860 To 1900, Red Fife, Marquis and New Varieties, Seed Politics, On-farm Trials, Diversity Within The Variety, Terroir and Branding, Red Fife Revival, Products Containing 'Red Fife' Wheat, Heritage Seed Conservation in Canada, Heritage Wheat and Red Fife Reintroduction History, Food Folklore and Culture Featuring Red Fife, 2012 Onwards With Heritage Wheat, References
Famous quotes containing the words red, fife and/or wheat:
“Poverty was an ornament on a learned man like a red ribbon on a white horse.”
—Anzia Yezierska (c. 1881–1970)
“‘Oh beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly,
Play the Dead March as you carry me along;
Take me to the green valley, there lay the sod o’er me,
For I’m a young cowboy and I know I’ve done wrong.”
—Unknown. As I Walked Out in the Streets of Laredo (l. 5–8)
“The measure discriminates definitely against products which make up what has been universally considered a program of safe farming. The bill upholds as ideals of American farming the men who grow cotton, corn, rice, swine, tobacco, or wheat and nothing else. These are to be given special favors at the expense of the farmer who has toiled for years to build up a constructive farming enterprise to include a variety of crops and livestock.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)