Red Fife wheat

Red Fife is believed to have crossed several continents and the Atlantic before arriving in Canada, where it gained a foothold on the land of David Fife, hence its name. Red Fife is the first wheat to be named in Canada and has great agricultural influence there today, as many modern varieties of wheat are genetically related to this grain.

Origin and history

Red Fife Wheat is thought to have originated in Turkey, after which it moved across the Black Sea to Ukraine where Mennonite farmers grew it. Red Fife seeds were later shipped to Glasgow, where a friend of David Fife sent a sample to Canada. Fife then grew the variety in Ontario and shared it with other farmers, calling the wheat Red Fife after its distinctive color. The Red Fife seed adapted to a great diversity of growing conditions across Canada and became the baking and milling industry standard for forty years, from the 1860s to the turn of the twentieth century.

Marquis wheat was developed from crossing Red Fife with Hard Red Calcutta. Marquis took over Red Fife's place in the early 1900s and then Thatcher in the 1930s.

For most of the twentieth century, Red Fife was grown in very small quantities in plant breeders’ seed collections. 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 began what is now known as the Maritime Heritage Wheat Project.

In 2003 in India, inspired by the Red Fife movement, Kranti Prakash took heritage wheats to the Punjab region, 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.

Description

Red Fife wheat has only three small awns at the top of the head. The straws can grow up to a height of 3–5 feet, depending on the nutrients available in the soil. Red Fife wheat is red or white in color. On Canada's west coast, Red Fife wheat is whiter in colour, due to genetic interaction with mild environmental conditions. Red Fife grows as a spring wheat on the Prairies and can be grown both as a spring and winter wheat on the temperate west and east coasts and in Ontario.

Red Fife is an unregistered wheat and is regulated under Canadian legislation. Only registered varieties are to be sold.

Diversity within the variety

Each seed shows a distinct protein banding pattern. This preliminary research work shows that the 'terroir' of genetics and the environment immediately affect the quality of the seed. Called "folk seeds" or farmers' varieties, landraces have been feeding people since plant domestication started about 10,000 years ago. Landraces provide excellent insurance for subsistence farming populations; there is always something in the field at the end of the season.

Farmers stopped using Red Fife and Marquis as new and improved varieties came onto the market. Landraces 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 fertilizer to produce high yields.

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

Red Fife in the media

Folk musician Phil Vernon wrote a song entitled 'Red Fife Wheat' for Canada's first "Bread and Wheat" festival, held in Victoria, British Columbia in 2008.

Products containing Red Fife Wheat

In June 2010, Canadian Real Canadian Superstores began selling an 1882 Red Fife loaf, recognising their family heritage as bakers and the 1880s when 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.

References

• 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