Work in progress!
I grew up surrounded by wheat fields, yet no textbook or teacher told me the ancient story of wheat. Where did it come from? Where has it been? Where is it going? How did it shape civilizations, bring down empires and feed the world?
In 2016, I travelled to Greece, Turkey, Romania and Ukraine to trace the ancient footsteps of wheat. The journey took me to Zmiivka, Ukraine ~ formerly Klosterdorf, Russia ~ the place from which my farming ancestors emigrated to Canada in 1891.
The following year, I visited St. Petersburg, Russia, and the celebrated Vavilov Institute, the first and oldest seed bank in the world. Down those hallowed halls, I entered the seed "vault" holding almost 53,000 individual samples collected from the oldest wheat fields in the world. In early 2018, I attended the first international symposium on the future of ancient wheats in Bologna, Italy. So many impressions!
The photo above was taken near Athens, Greece, at the temple ruins of Demeter, the ancient goddess of wheat and life everlasting. To stand among those sacred rocks was a dream come true. Here are a few more photos from those travels (thanks to funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, Access Copyright Foundation and Saskatchewan Arts Board).
I grew up surrounded by wheat fields, yet no textbook or teacher told me the ancient story of wheat. Where did it come from? Where has it been? Where is it going? How did it shape civilizations, bring down empires and feed the world?
In 2016, I travelled to Greece, Turkey, Romania and Ukraine to trace the ancient footsteps of wheat. The journey took me to Zmiivka, Ukraine ~ formerly Klosterdorf, Russia ~ the place from which my farming ancestors emigrated to Canada in 1891.
The following year, I visited St. Petersburg, Russia, and the celebrated Vavilov Institute, the first and oldest seed bank in the world. Down those hallowed halls, I entered the seed "vault" holding almost 53,000 individual samples collected from the oldest wheat fields in the world. In early 2018, I attended the first international symposium on the future of ancient wheats in Bologna, Italy. So many impressions!
The photo above was taken near Athens, Greece, at the temple ruins of Demeter, the ancient goddess of wheat and life everlasting. To stand among those sacred rocks was a dream come true. Here are a few more photos from those travels (thanks to funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, Access Copyright Foundation and Saskatchewan Arts Board).
