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.

Red Fife is characterized by three small awns at the top of the head of wheat, but otherwise it is awnless. The straws can be 3–5 feet tall depending on the nutrients available to the plant in the soil. A picture of the variety can be seen here.

By the 1860s Red Fife was distributed and growing across Canada, adapting to a broad diversity of growing conditions. Renowned as a fine milling and baking wheat it set Canadian wheat standards for over forty years (1860–1900). Agriculture Canada and provincial agriculture research stations would import varieties from all over the world and try them in the Canadian growing conditions. There is no native variety of wheat in Canada.

Marquis wheat was developed from crossing Red Fife with Hard Red Calcutta. A history of Marquis and Red Fife has been posted on the Agriculture Canada website.

Farmers stopped using Red Fife and Marquis as new and improved varieties came onto the market. Land races have horizontal resistance, as opposed to hybrids that have vertical resistance. By the 1960s, the Green Revolution introduced varieties of crops that were dependent on high inputs of chemicals to produce high yields.

Plant breeders have used the genetics of old varieties to develop new varieties. Many of the bread wheats developed in Canada owe part of their genetic lineage to Red Fife wheat. The USDA Wheat Handbooks are resources listing variety names. A wheat's name could easily change when the seed was sent to another farmer.

The export market for wheat has been a factor in how wheat varieties and grading processes developed in Canada. In the 1920s, a registration system for all wheat sold in Canada was put in place. 'Merit' criteria for variety registration are based on agronomic criteria and yield. Taste has never been considered a criterion of 'merit'. Focus on yield has supported high-input, chemical-driven agriculture.

Red Fife is an unregistered wheat, and unregistered wheat, potato and other crops are regulated under the Variety Registration legislation of Canada. Only registered varieties are to be sold.

Wheat is graded and sold by its grade, and as a commodity. It is traded globally and prices are dictated by marketing boards and regulatory agencies.

The local food and Slow Food movements have helped people recognize the value of farmer and variety identification on the food. Red Fife wheat is on the Slow Food Ark of Taste to conserve biodiversity.

With the large diversity of heritage varieties and species of wheat from which to choose, farmers can find varieties that thrive in their bioregion. They can then produce high-quality grain without costly inputs. With some research into what varieties did well in the region in the era before high input agriculture, farmers can start their search to find adapted varieties to suit their customers' taste, nutritional and quality requirements. There are heritage wheat groups around the world and these networks help people source seed and connect to farmers. On Farm Research booklets are on the net.

Red Fife is not an ideal wheat for all growing conditions. Hundreds of thousands of varieties of bread wheat have been created globally. Finding seed and testing the variety to thrive in a particular location is the farmer's work; governments are not interested in heritage wheat.

Alternative species of wheats, such as emmer, einkorn, and spelt, and varieties within all these speciesare of growing interest for their quality of gluten, proteins and other properties. Wheat Belly and Demeter's Wheats are books that discuss ancestral grains.

On-farm plant selection trials give farmers a chance to observe the crops, do selection in the field and make their own strains. Then they can brand the variety and create new and improved varieties as they choose.

On Farm Research empowers farmers to seek answers and experiment on their own farms.

In 2003 and 2004 Sharon Rempel sent diverse samples of Red Fife and other heritage varieties to the Canadian Grain Commission for protein banding. This technique indicates how a variety is changing genetically each time it grows in a field. Of the three samples of Red Fife in the Canadian Gene Bank, only one sample was identical to the undated lab sample at the Grain Commission, and these accessions had no background data.

Each seed showed a distinct protein banding pattern. This preliminary research work shows that the 'terroir' of genetics and the environment immediately affect how the quality of the seed changes. The wheat looked the same in each field but the genetics were already changing. Does this mean Red Fife is a landrace? It is a heritage variety and a folk seed. Little published research work has been done in this area. Farmers have been doing this type of work for centuries.

Called "folk seeds" or farmers' varieties, land races have been feeding people since plant domestication started about 10,000 years ago. Land races provide excellent insurance for subsistence farming populations; there is always something in the field at the end of the season.

Landraces offer built in horizontal resistance within the plant group.

On the west coast Red Fife wheat may actually be more white in colour because of the genetic interaction with the mild environmental conditions. Red Fife grows as a spring wheat on the Prairies and can be grown both as a spring wheat and a winter wheat on the temperate west or east coasts and in Ontario.

Red Fife seems to develop a more robust red characteristic and is a 'hard' wheat when grown where it can be stressed by temperature during the growing season and has a more white delicate flavour and is more of a 'soft' wheat when grown in more temperate conditions. (this information comes from personal field growing experiences of Sharon Rempel, organic plant breeder, ECO PB)

Taste is not considered a merit quality characteristic in Canadian variety registration.

The bread and wheat industry of Canada can mature in a way that honors the terroir of the genetics of the variety and interaction with the land where the grain is grown, just as the wine and grape industry identifies regions and types of grapes. Terroir determines the quality of the product and the price and the idea is spreading into wheat, tea, coffee, cheese and other products.

Farmers can brand their Red Fife to allow the terroir of their variety to be experienced and identified. The wheat will change in baking qualities, protein components and other qualities year to year in the same field.

Red Fife is the first variety and farmer identified wheat sold in Canada.

From 1900 to 1988, Red Fife was grown in very small quantities in plant breeders’ seed collections.

The idea to introduce and commercialize Red Fife came from Sharon Rempel and Cuyler Page in the late 1980s at the 1870s historic site, the Grist Mill at Keremeos, B.C. Chief Interpreter Sharon Rempel wanted to plant the varieties of wheat that might have been milled at the Grist Mill during the 1880s.

Sharon wrote to various Agriculture Canada stations seeking information and seed. Leigh Crowle, a plant breeder from Saskatchewan, sent her one pound of each of the seven historic wheat varieties: Red Fife (1842), Ladoga (1880), Preston (1880), Stanley (1880), Hard Red Calcutta (1880), Marquis (1890), and Thatcher (1930). Dr. Crowle enclosed a handwritten card that read, "I’m retiring and these seeds are now your responsibility to care for and good luck."

Sharon called the University of British Columbia and was connected to Dr. Bert Brink, a retired agronomist. Brink taught Sharon the basics of growing out wheat in little field plots in a way that would ensure that there would be no cross pollination between varieties.

Holding back half the seed in case of crop failure, the half pound sample of Red Fife and other heritage varieties were planted in the spring of 1989. Like a magnet, the Living Museum of Wheat display attracted people who spent hours in the fields telling their friends and families stories about old wheat varieties. “I remember dad talking about Red Fife wheat…”

Grist Mill site managers Cuyler Page and Sharon Rempel had a vision: "Let’s grow these old wheats with the idea that one day Red Fife will be recommercialized in Canada."^[1]

The Red Fife wheat at The Keremeos Grist Mill was 'bulked up' and 800 pounds sent to Walter Walchuck in Edmonton and 800 pounds to Marc Loiselle in Saskatchewan.

The original "Keremeos" strain of wheat is the 'mother' of the current Red Fife wheat movement started by Sharon Rempel (www.grassrootsolutions.com).

The "Blais" strain of Red Fife is commonly sold throughout Canada. Farmer Blais received seed from Prairie Garden Seed and Walter Walchuk. Blais retired and sold his 'Blais' Red Fife seed to Walter who began to sell it to other farmers.

In June 2010 Superstores in Canada began selling their 1882 Red Fife loaf. They are recognizing their family heritage as bakers and the 1880s when Mr. Weston may have been using Red Fife in his breads. This is the first use of 'variety' preserved wheat in a food product in Canada. Organic farmers Holly and Ray Peterson in Tompkins Saskatchewan grow the Red Fife used in the Weston loaf.

Gananoque Ontario produced the first Red Fife beer in 2012.

Red Fife wheat is a pioneer for helping people put value onto heritage varieties of food crops in Canada. Varieties will be conserved if they can be sold and have value for the farmer. The revival of Red Fife in the Canadian food scene is helping bring variety and farmer identification to food crops.

The Heritage Wheat Project is the main networking group for heritage wheat in Canada.

Alberta: A diversity of old wheat varieties were grown out at the University of Alberta farm in Edmonton from 1996 to 1999. University wheat technician Kurt Kutschera and Sharon Rempel hosted information Field Days to introduce people to the beautiful old wheats. Seed from the old wheat was available through Seeds of Diversity.

Interest in growing heritage wheat grew slowly in Canada. In 1999 Onoway Alberta farmer, Kerry Smith, began growing Red Fife and other historic varieties. In 2000, 2001 and 2002 the Alberta Organic Association’s Walter Walchuk and Sharon co-hosted organic heritage wheat field trials throughout Alberta.

In 1998 Jennifer Scott and David Patriquin from Nova Scotia instigated what is now known as the Maritime Heritage Wheat Project. In 2003 the Heliotrust foundation was formed to run a heritage farm that is an education centre and home for heritage wheats. It’s the first land trust in Canada designed to promote agricultural biodiversity conservation and land conservation together. They have shown scientifically that Red Fife can be valuable to shade out weeds in the field.

In 2001 Saskatchewan organic farmer Marc Loiselle began growing Red Fife and has been one of dozens of producers of Red Fife in Canada.

In 2001 Kostas Koutis (Aegilops Network, Greece) and Hans Larsson (Allkorn Network, Sweden) joined the Heritage Wheat Project and link artisan bakers and growers of heritage wheats. Kostas and Hans are agronomists who have taken seed from gene banks and brought them back into on-farm conservation projects.

At the 2002 IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Movements) Global Organic Congress in Victoria B.C. sixty five people attended the Organic and Heritage Wheat session.

In 2003 Slow Food Canada’s Vancouver Island Chapter (Mara Jernigan and Sinclair Philips, co chairs) nominated Red Fife for the Ark of Taste, Canada’s first nomination to the Ark. The Red Fife Presidia was created.

On September 14, 2003 Red Fife wheat had its first public taste testing event in the West thanks to the Slow Food movement and Wildfire Bakery. Ms. J. Sushil Saini was hired to coordinate a Red Fife Wheat Presidia to link Red Fife wheat to artisan bakeries.

In 2003 in India, inspired by the Red Fife movement, Mr. Kranti Prakash took heritage wheats to the Punjab, where the Green Revolution started in India. He continues his work with Dalit farmers in Bihar.

In 2004 at the Slow Food Terra Madre and the Salone del Gusto celebration in Italy, Red Fife was featured as Canada's only product on show.

Phil Vernon's 'Red Fife Wheat' song is on his album Kitale Road. The song was created for Canada's first "Bread and Wheat" festival held in Victoria B.C. in 2008. (verified correct by Bread and Wheat Festival creator Sharon Rempel)

Red Fife wheat has been the pioneer in decommoditizing wheat and in recognizing the value heritage wheat. Unless a heritage crop has value in the marketplace it will not be conserved.

"The hand that holds the seed controls the food supply." Sharon Rempel 2008.

HARLAN Jack R., Crops and man, American Society of Agronomy, Madison 1975

REMPEL, Sharon. Demeter's Wheats. Growing Local Food and Community with traditional wisdom and heritage wheat. 2008. Grassroot Solutions, Victoria. B.C. www.grassrootsolutions.com

SCOTT, Jennifer. New Respect for Old Wheat. Reclaiming heritage varieties requires culinary as well as agricultural expertise. Rural Delivery, October, 2004. http://www.heliotrust.ca/projects/wheat/oldwheat.html

SYMKO, Stephan. Research Branch. Agriculture Canada. 1999. From a single seed, tracing the history of Marquis wheat success story in Canada to its roots in the Ukraine. http://www4.agr.gc.ca/AAFC-AAC/display-afficher.do?id=1181224838769#contents

WITCOMBE J. R.; JOSHI A; JOSHI K. D.; STHAPIT B. R. Farmer participatory crop improvement. I. Varietal selection and breeding methods and their impact on biodiversity. Experimental Agriculture (Exp. Agric.) 1996, vol. 32, no4, pp. 445–460 (19 ref.) http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=3249915