Wheat, revisited

 I can only wish I was talented enough (and had the patience) to create a woven-wheat wreath like this.

Apparently, I'm not the only one with a fondness for wheat and how it can be used to create art as well as bread. Thanks to a reader (see Thankful for Wheat post below) for suggesting I check out www.edwardstrees.com/WheatWeaving. The examples are lovely and the care tips helpful (use a soft brush for dusting and a misting of water to preserve) as I look around the house for a place to hang this woven-wheat wreath. I bought it a lifetime ago on a trip from Illinois to the West Coast with a stopover in Nebraska. At the time I thought I paid too much; now I think it was a huge bargain. I know it was made by a Nebraska artisan, but for the life of me I don't know where I put the tag with her name.

I'll never be able to do anything this fine or detailed, but I still hope to use some of my wheat in Christmas decorations -- I am capable of bundling stems and tying with a ribbon. Meanwhile, this baby will get a brushing and a spritzing and a place of honor -- just as soon as I figure out where.

Thankful for wheat

A few stems of black-tip wheat.

Wheat was never an option in the home garden when I was growing up. Wheat was a field crop, something farmers planted by the acre and harvested with huge noisy machines. Those amber waves of grain were pretty, but they were destined to be bread and, as everyone knew, food crops and ornamental crops just didn't mingle.

Funny how these boundaries, like so many others, are history.

This Thanksgiving, among the many things -- big and small -- that I'm grateful for, I'm glad that Brian had the good sense to plant black-tip wheat (Triticum durum) this year. We got the seed from Territorial Seed Company and it germinated quickly in a sunny spot between the garage and the side door. The green shoots quickly grew into buff-colored spikes that took on an ethereal glow in the late afternoon sun. The black in the awls didn't quite rise to expectations but it was still satisfying.

Sunshine lights up the wheat at left and right in early September.

Satisfying outside in the sun and now satisfying inside on the table. The wheat dries beautifully and is a natural for autumn/Thanksgiving decor. You can go minimal with just a few stems in a vase or lush with a bunch tied together with a ribbon. And, now that Thanksgiving is over, some of the wheat can go to a friend for use in a Hanukkah play and some can be recycled for use in Christmas decorations. No boundaries.

Bundle a bunch of stems together for a lush effect.