Stone Ground Organic Turkey Red Whole Grain Flour

Turkey Red Wheat, once the dominant variety of hard red winter wheat planted throughout the central U.S., is back in production in Kansas.

“Turkey” variety hard red winter wheat was introduced to Kansas in 1873, carried by Mennonite immigrants from Crimea in the Ukraine, fleeing Russian forced military service. In the mid-1880s, grainsman Bernard Warkentin imported some 10,000 bushels of Turkey seed from the Ukraine, the first commercially available to the general public. That 10,000 bushels (600,000 pounds) would plant some 150 square miles (10,000 acres). By the beginning of the twentieth century, hard red winter wheat, virtually all of it Turkey, was planted on some five million acres in Kansas alone. In the meantime, it had become the primary wheat variety throughout the plains from the Texas panhandle to South Dakota. Without “Turkey” wheat there would be no “Breadbasket.”

Like many traditional crop varieties, by modern times the old variety of Turkey Red had all but vanished. Fortunately, a few enterprising Midwest farmers have kept the old seed stock in production, so we are now able to offer this heirloom wheat and flour to our customers.

Performs similarly to and can be use in place of modern Hard Red Winter wheat.

Note: Since this flour contains wheat germ and wheat germ is an oil, this flour will not keep for as long as typical commercially milled white flour. Do not purchase more than you expect to consume within a few months. We mill fresh within a couple days of shipping. We recommend keeping your flour in airtight packaging or container and storing in a cool place or preferably the refrigerator or freezer.