Canada, like the Ukraine, grows excellent grain crops, so you have to wonder why most Canadians eat the worst kind of bread and hot-dog buns. They are way too sugary and salty for my taste.
I bake my own bread and the only sugar used is the one teaspoon to get the yeast to rise.
If you’ve been to Europe I think you’ll agree that the Europeans have us beat when it comes to making good bread. They don’t eat the spongy white bread that’s so popular with Canadians –you know, the stuff you have to toast. Europeans tend to eat wholesome breads.
Rye bread is popular in European countries. Ah, good rye bread! I like the Holtzheuser Bros black pumpernickel bread. It is a product of Holland, and is made from wholemeal rye flour with no preservatives added.
Ukrainian wheat has always been known for making the best bread. Ukraine, the breadbasket of Europe, has a rich black fertile soil, which produces grain in great abundance. Two-thirds of Ukraine’s soil is black, roughly12 million hectares. The black soil can be three to four feet deep and in some places the black soil goes down 50-feet.
By comparison, our topsoil is usually only five or six inches deep.
According to Agriculture and Agri-food Canada’s web publication, “From a single seed tracing the Marquis wheat success story in Canada to its roots in the Ukraine”, it is estimated that 25,000 different varieties of wheat have been produced worldwide.
Ancient Ukrainian wheats, especially winter ones, were famous throughout the world — and not just as food grain. They played a very important role in world agriculture as seed grain, mainly because of their high quality and resistance to cold. In fact, the Ukraine was one of the world’s major areas for both spring and winter wheat as early as the fourth century B.C.
To understand how good bread is made you have to start with the wheat kernel. The most extensively cultivated grains are wheat, barley, rye, oats, rice, and corn or maize. These have all been cultivated since ancient times in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Maize is the only grain that originated in America.
Barley, oats and rye are the grains of the coldest regions. The cultivation of barley and oats extends even within the Arctic Circle, something I learned while I was on a farm in Finland a few years ago. Wheat needs a somewhat warmer climate.
According to the regions in which they are grown, certain types of wheat are chosen for their adaptability to altitude, climate, and yield. The common wheats grown in Canada, the U.S. and Russia are spring and winter wheats, planted either in the spring or in the fall. The colour of the grain varies from one type to another; white wheats are mostly winter wheats, red are spring wheats.
Durham wheat is so called because of the hardness of the grain. The Durham wheats are grown commercially in drier regions of the country, for example, the brown soil zone of the central Prairies in Canada. They are characterized by having large, ovate-shaped, amber-coloured kernels that are very hard, almost flinty in texture. This class of wheats is used extensively for pasta products throughout the world, as well as for other specialty products.
The bread wheats encompass a wide range of different types classified largely by their growth habit and functionality. The various classes are combinations of winter or spring growth habit with white or red kernels and hard-or soft textured kernels. For example, both spring and winter wheats include types with hard or soft and red or white kernels. Hard wheat is often blended with soft wheat to make All-Purpose flour.
Bread is baked from the flour of varieties with hard kernels, predominantly the red type.
Gluten-free breads are gaining in popularity. I see them on shelves in small bakeries. A gluten-free diet is the only medically accepted treatment for celiac disease. Corn, potatoes, rice, soybeans, oats, chickpeas and nut flours are all gluten-free.
In spite of its name, buckwheat is not related to wheat; pure buckwheat is considered acceptable for a gluten-free diet. However, many commercial buckwheat products are actually mixtures of wheat and buckwheat flours, and thus not acceptable.
