Date: 02 Feb 2012
Above: John Letts talking at Doves Farm
1. How old were you when you first visited a farm ?
Probably a week or two. I was born in a small town in Southern Ontario, but my mother was raised on a nearby farm and I grew up in a small village working on the surrounding farms until I left home.
2. What sparked your interest in archaeobotany ?
My earliest memories are of being in the garden with my father. I had my own small garden - and began collecting seeds - when I was about 9 or 10. In my early 20s I spent several summers working in a museum – a reconstruction of the first European community in Ontario (1639) – and got very interested in the food and plant use of North American Indians.
This drew me into looking at archaeological evidence, and I eventually ended up studying archaeobotany at UCL in London after moving to the UK.
3. How many different types of wheat do you have in your collection ?
I suppose it depends what is meant by ‘type’. I’ll be growing out about 1,000 different types of wheat this year, but not all of them will pass the grade and be incorporated into a ‘population/mixture’ for future plantings. I grow all of the main species of wheat and other cereals (rye, oats, barley, buckwheat and quinoa).
I grow quite a lot of ‘primitive’ wheats such as einkorn, emmer and spelt, as well as older ‘improved’ varieties of bread and rivet wheat that have been grown in the UK over the past few centuries. My ‘heritage’ populations contain from 20-200 varieties all of which are grown in one field.
4. Do you have a favourite bread recipe ?
My grandmother used to make traditional Belgian raisin bread when I was a boy, and I’d give anything to eat a slice of it again, smothered with butter and surrounded by my extended family. I’ve tried to make it at home in England but I just can’t get it to come out as good. It contained mostly white flour, and the recipe included egg yolks, butter and a little sugar, but it was risen with yeast and definitely more of a bread than a cake. I’ve not seen anything like it on sale in the UK.
5. What advice would you give a young person wanting to study agriculture ?
Try to avoid being drawn too deeply into the molecular world rather than practical aspects of farming – or find some place to study where practical knowledge of how to actually grow crops in a more ecological way is still valued.
Almost all crop science and plant breeding is now funded by agri-business who are interested only in making as much money as possible, not in feeding the world or producing crops that can be grown sustainably to produce healthy food in a world with dwindling resources and a changing climate.
6. Do you think the old heritage wheats taste better ?
Yes, I think the flour of heritage wheats has more flavour and substance – but the flavour of bread depends a lot on how the grain is milled and how it is baked.
Personally, I think heritage cereals produce fantastic flour for most purposes – from artisan style and sourdough bread to biscuits and pizza. Primitive durum-types wheats makes wonderful, tasty pasta and spelt flour produces a delicious, ‘nutty’ tasting yeasted bread.
Modern varieties can contain a lot of protein, which produces a very light, spongy bread, whose ‘flavour’ is derived primarily from the foods eaten with it (eg. soup) or the butter and jam spread onto it.
To read more about our Heritage Wheat project, click here.
