Bulgur is a preparation--the wheat berries are soaked, parboiled, and dried, to create a quick-cooking (or soak-and-no-cook)
staple grain.
Emmer, Einkorn, Farro, Durham are all different species from modern wheat, with different genetic make-up, and have tenacious hulls that are hard to remove. Einkorn and Emmer have been grown for 9000 years in the Fertile Crescent. They are highly nutritious, and some people with wheat allergies (though not people who are celiac) can eat them.However, the tight hulls make the nutrients kind of moot on the homestead level, because if you can't process it into edible form, you aren't going to eat it.
Bread Wheat (often called Modern Wheat) dates back "only" 4000 years. It is all Triticum aestivum, and is hulless. Spelt is of similar age, but has tight, hard-to-remove hulls and a different type of gluten. Several heritage varieties of wheat have survived the Green Revolution and are commercially available, if you are willing to search for small seed companies and non-profit seed preservation groups. Red Fife and Turkey Red, for example, are both modern names for very old wheats from Eastern Europe, brought to the US by Russian Mennonite farmers from Georgia and Ukraine. A great resource for finding out about heritage wheat, with many inspiring stories, and recipes, is Eli Rogosa's book Restoring Heritage Grains, published by Chelsea Green, and available directly from them.
Most wheat varieties have either a deep red-brown kernel (red wheats) or a "white" kernel (actually golden brown) when mature. The White wheats are whole grains just like the red wheats, they just have a different coloration. Usually, but not always, the red wheats have higher gluten content, which makes yeast bread rise higher. They often have special adaptations--for example, White Sonoran wheat is so drought-tolerant that it enabled Arizona and California to produce wheat through much of the 19th century both for
local use and for export back east. Recently, artisanal bakers have developed recipes for specific heritage varieties, so that you can make great breads from either color of wheat. Older wheats often produce flour with a more golden color, which increases the flavor we perceive as "buttery" as well as the nutrition.
A few heritage wheat varieties that are available
online are Red Fife, Turkey Red, Ethiopian Blue-Tinge, Maris Wigeon, Banatka, and White Sonoran. Vendors I know of who carry some of these heritage varieties are Quail Seeds, Adaptive Seeds,
Wood Prairie Seeds, and Victory seeds. After the 1950's wheat was mostly dwarfed as part of the Green Revolution strategy of high inputs and high yield. Many of these recent wheats have good disease resistance and sprout easily, but the short stature makes them very vulnerable to weed pressure. (The idea was that you would use herbicides.) Traditionally, grains were valued for their stems (
straw), leaves (hay) and large vigorous
root systems rather than just their grain. Heritage wheats are not only taller above ground but have larger root systems below ground, making them able to find nutrients and
water more effectively. The taller tops not only yield valuable straw for livestock, thatching, and composting, but shade out weeds.
Sometimes you can find heritage grains available as grain or berries for cooking. These usually sprout and grow. One such is Kamut, or Khorasan Wheat, a true ancient grain that is also free-threshing. The Quinn family in Canada has trademarked the Kamut name to prevent people crossing and diluting the ancient genetics. Their grain is all produced on organic farms, and tested for high protein and mineral content. In my
experience, the Kamut berries sold for eating are mature and viable for seed as well. The grains are larger than other wheats, and have a sweet, buttery flavor, like many heritage wheats. Khorasan wheat is considered a soft wheat type, better for biscuits, quickbreads, pilaf, pastry, and pasta than for yeast bread.
Grains that have tight hulls, such as oats or spelt, are often cracked int he process of de-hulling, so that grain sold as food usually doesn't work for seed. But without mechanical de-hullers, you wouldn't want to grow them anyway.
There are a few varieties of barley and oats that are naturally hulless. You can sometimes find these for sale at the above companies, or at KUSA, a non-profit devoted to preserving ancient grains. I notice that Fedco seeds has Burbank Hulless barley this year.
Last, I'd like to say a word about spring and fall wheats, and about planting times. Winter wheats need to go through winter before sending up seed stalks. They are usually planted from a month before the last frost date to a little bit after. Spring wheats are planted as soon as the ground can be worked in spring--that is February on much of the west coast, and March or April elsewhere. Both need cool weather for growth, and will form seedheads around summer solstice. Older wheats, both the really ancient ones like einkorn and the more modern hulless heritage wheats, are often facultative, meaning that they can adapt to either planting time, spring or fall. If you see the same variety referred to as spring-planted and as fall-planted, chances are it is facultative. Most of the ancient, hulless wheats are facultative, or at least somewhat adaptable in planting time. For more on this, see Eli Rogosa's book, Restoring Heritage Grains. She lived in Palestine among traditional farmers, both Arab and Israeli, and was able to gather and grow some of the ancient wheats that have survived from Biblical times. She now lives in New England, where she runs the Heritage Grain Conservancy and grows ancient wheats from Eastern Europe.
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. The Grünkern is considered a "presidio" (item) of the Slow Food movement.
