Farro: The Forgotten Trinity of Ancient Wheat
RECIPES: An Enlightened Omnivore Series on Ancient Grains
I remember pulling the seed heads off of wild grasses as a child, releasing the prickly caps into the air and watching them land around my feet, some sticking to my socks and shoe laces. It's taken forty years to realize that I was actually playing around with the wild relatives of some of humanity's oldest cultivated foods.
Grains were the first fruits of agriculture some 10,000 years ago, central to human culture and urbanization. Our ancient ancestors gathered up these humble grasses (many ancient grains would have looked like the weeds in your backyard) and then planted them over and over again until they began to transform. Through patience and persistence, we helped grains develop larger kernels and stronger stalks. I say “helped” because modern biology is learning that these plants made just as many innovations of their own to keep us happy. "Shatter resistance,” is a term for plants that hold onto their seeds rather than disperse them like a dandelion. Early grains may have refused to release their seeds to the winds, so that they could offer more food to their new symbiotic partner, homo sapiens.
Bread or Beer?
Experts still argue about why we decided to domesticate grasses in the first place. Was it to make bread or beer? My vote is beer because I find it so much easier to make. Although sourdough starter fans might disagree, bread seems too complicated. It requires milling, intense and consistent heating, and all that kneading. The earliest beers were probably just some recently gathered grain left out in the rain overnight.
Regardless of which came first, grains offered humanity something that most meats and vegetables could not: storage potential. Wealth was likely measured by how many winters you could survive on surplus food. Granaries became the bank vaults of the ancient world. Cereals were the crypto currency of our ancient ancestors.
The Whitening of Our Plates
Fast forward 10,000 years, and our dependence on grains remains primary, but the color of our carbohydrates has changed.
For centuries, refined flours—those that have had their bran and germ removed—were only available to the wealthy. In Asia—particularly China and Japan—white rice was associated with the upper classes, while peasants consumed cheaper, unpolished grains. White breads in Europe were a sign of royalty.
But during the industrialization of the 19th and 20th centuries, technological advances in milling and polishing meant that more people could have access to these symbols of wealth and refinement. Processes that had been time consuming and expensive, were now cheaper and more accessible. They also dramatically improved shelf life and made the grains lighter, and therefore more profitable to transport. Colonial dynamics reinforced that refined foods were “civilized” replacing indigenous whole grain alternatives.
Brown rice was polished into basmati, corn tortillas became flour, and whole grain toast turned into Wonder Bread.
We've become "a world of white bread and white rice," says Robin Asbell, author of "The Whole Grains Cookbook."
We’ve basically stripped our sacred carbohydrates of their soul.
And this move to white may have had some serious negative side effects. Refining and polishing remove the germ and bran, which have most of the grain’s nutrition. This means all that’s left is sterile sugar. We’ve basically turned our grains into candy.
It’s no wonder that people like to eat white toast versus wheat, or white rice over brown. The resulting flavors are easier to digest, taste sweeter, and look prettier. But these empty carbohydrate calories are also linked to obesity. The lack of fiber can increase cancers, and James Nestor—in his book Breathe—has even suggested that the lack of chew in our food has weakened our mouth muscles so much that it might be responsible for a spike in sleep apnea.
My own experiments with a continuous glucose monitor showed me the stark reality. Refined carbs in a slice of bread or pasta sent my blood sugar rocketing skyward before plummeting back down to dangerous lows. This glycemic velocity is now being researched as a concern for type 2 diabetes, or hunger spikes among the clinically obese. However, ancient grains—like bulgur or farro—didn’t affect my blood sugar as dramatically. Instead, they created gentler glycemic curves that my pancreas could manage. The added fiber and protein meant I didn’t experience the same post-dinner couch-crashing that a bowl of pasta might cause.
Finally, the USDA has gotten onboard with the benefits of whole grains. It now recommends that half of all carbohydrates should come from whole grains, and that 80% of grains in school lunches should have the added fiber, nutrients and minerals found in whole grains.
Ancient Grain Options
So now that I know I need more whole grains, how do I get them?
Despite their disappearance, ancient grains aren’t extinct. Thanks to an explosion in consumer interest, grocery stores stock quite a few of the best options. There is barley, rye, bulgur and chia. Wild rice is one of my personal favorites with its nutty, almost meaty flavor. I’ve already written about amaranth, which is technically a pseudocereal along with quinoa and buckwheat. And I am deliberately excluding couscous from this list—it's no more a grain than orzo is rice. Both are wheat flour formed into tiny pasta balls masquerading as seeds.
But for this week, I’ve decided to focus on that trinity of wild wheats, those forgotten ancestors of modern all purpose flour. I’m talking spelt, emmer and einkorn, or what the Italians collectively called farro.
The Forgotten Wheat Trinity
Farro isn't a single grain but rather an umbrella term covering three ancient wheat varieties:
Farro Piccolo (Einkorn): The smallest and perhaps purest of ancient wheats, with a simple structure reflecting its name, which comes from the German for "one kernel."
Farro Medio (Emmer): The variety most commonly sold as "farro" in the United States, typically imported from Tuscany. Rich in niacin and magnesium, it offers a nutritional boost missing from modern wheat.
Farro Grande (Spelt): Once a staple throughout Western Europe, spelt fell out of favor due to its labor-intensive cultivation. With less gluten and more protein than common wheat, its flour is perfect for pastas, pizza, and flatbreads.
Farro is certainly the OG ancient grain. Medio or emmer, was probably the first cultivated cereal on the planet, found in archaeological sites as early as 17,000 BCE in Egypt's Nile Valley. Einkorn (the smaller seed) was found in ancient settlements dating back to 7700 BCE in what is now Turkey. Prehistoric people ate these proto wheats for millennia, and the Romans fed their armies on the stuff, although they called it by the Latin name of far/farris. The Italians continued the tradition, changing the name to farro which then appears in English in the 1800s.
The taste difference between ancient farro varieties and modern wheat is striking. While modern wheat has been bred for uniformity and yield, these ancient grains offer complex, nutty flavors with subtle but distinct differences between varieties. Einkorn has a rich, buttery taste with hints of cinnamon. Emmer presents a more robust, earthy profile with a satisfying chew. Spelt contributes a mild sweetness that works beautifully in baked goods. These distinct flavors make each variety suited to different culinary applications—einkorn shines in porridge and simple pilafs, emmer holds its own in hearty soups and stews, while spelt makes exceptional bread and pasta.
According to ancient grain expert Maria Speck, author of the Ancient Grains for Modern Meals, despite their deliciousness, the three farro varieties disappeared from our tables simply because they required more labor to grow and harvest than modern wheat varieties.
I tend to eat emmer more than spelt or einkorn, and love it as an alternative to rice. I especially love the added texture. But what makes me most excited about experimenting with ancient grains like farro is that they embody my Enlightened Omnivore philosophy on food. They're minimally processed, rich in flavors, and satisfying in smaller portions. They're plants that connect me to the Earth and to a rich human history we can all share.
So next time you're facing the grain aisle, consider reaching past the instant white rice for one of these ancient treasures. Your taste buds—and your body—will thank you for rediscovering what time has forgotten.
Farro Recipes
I’ve asked some of my friends and fellow food writers on Substack to share their favorite farro recipes. Here are a few of their best efforts that are sure to get you inspired in the kitchen.
offers a beautiful Il Ciavarro that he just posted publicly for this post. He says that the key when cooking farro is to know whether it is pearled, semi pearled or whole. For whole, soaking is recommended, otherwise it can take forever to cook. He likes semiperlato which takes about 35 mins to cook on the stovetop, or 22 mins in the Instant pot. Toasting farro can add even more flavor but isn’t essential., also known by her tiktok moniker, babytamago has a green farro halloumi salad that “single handedly dug [her] out of the weird in-between period of winter and spring where you don’t know what to eat or how to act.” Katie says she loves loves loves the “chewy tender feel of farro in a salad,” even though it’s not her go to as a hot side.of food//and shares a farro salad that—of all things—was inspired by a soup. She had me at the meatball recipe alone, but the Herby Farro Salad with Mini-Meatballs has the added benefit of being a two-for-one recipe. When it’s too hot for soup, turn it into a salad.
ENJOY!!!
I love farrow and nutty grains! Pasta and white rice are so boring and vacant, and like you, they make me feel sluggish.
Where in the Claremont area can we get these ancient grains?