Emmer Wheat

Emmer is a hulled hybrid wheat species, formally Triticum turgidum subsp. dicoccum, one of the earliest crops domesticated by humans alongside einkorn in the Near East. It descends from the wild tetraploid Triticum dicoccoides, itself a hybrid of two diploid wild grasses, and carries strong glumes enclosing its grains along with a semi-brittle rachis. Archaeological evidence traces its use back to wild grains found at Ohalo II radiocarbon dated to about 17,000 BC, and it became fully domesticated during the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period, later serving as the main wheat of Pharaonic Egypt. Though widely cultivated across the ancient world, it survives today mainly as a relict crop in mountainous parts of Europe and Asia, valued for bread making and, in Italy, as one of three grains called farro, used in pilafs, porridges and soups.