RULAUG2012

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Porridge

Porridge (also spelled porage, porrige, parritch, etc.),^[1] is a dish made by boiling ground, crushed, or chopped cereal in water, milk, or both, with optional flavourings, usually served hot in a bowl or dish. It may be sweetened with sugar, or served as a savoury dish. The term is usually used for oat porridge (porridge oats); there are similar dishes made with other grains or legumes, but they often have other unique names, such as polenta, grits or kasha.

Until leavened bread and baking ovens became commonplace in Europe, porridge was a typical means of preparing cereal crops for the table.

This has happened twice in the ancient history of wheat, the first time, about 30,000 years ago, to produce Emmer Wheat, and the second time, about 9,000 years ago, to produce the wheat we use today

Wheat in Ancient Daily Life
Sprouted Emmer Wheat may have been the main ingredient of ancient Egyptian beer. Whether it was Emmer Wheat or barley, though, Egyptian beer was one of the daily essentials, along with bread and onions. [See Ancient Brewing.] The ancient Greek diet had similar essentials: bread, oil, and wine. [See The Staple Articles of Food.] In Deuteronomy 8, the promised land promises wheat before honey:

8:7 For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;
8:8 A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;
8:9 A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.

Wheat (Triticum spp.)^[1] is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East and Ethiopian Highlands, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2010, world production of wheat was 651 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize (844 million tons) and rice (672 million tons).^[2] Wheat was the second most-produced cereal in 2009; world production in that year was 682 million tons, after maize (817 million tons), and with rice as a close third (679 million tons).^[3]
This grain is grown on more land area than any other commercial food.^{[citation needed]} World trade in wheat is greater than for all other crops combined.^[4] Globally, wheat is the leading source of vegetable protein in human food, having a higher protein content than other major cereals, maize (corn) or rice.^[5] In terms of total production tonnages used for food, it is currently second to rice as the main human food crop and ahead of maize, after allowing for maize's more extensive use in animal feeds.
Wheat was a key factor enabling the emergence of city-based societies at the start of civilization because it was one of the first crops that could be easily cultivated on a large scale, and had the additional advantage of yielding a harvest that provides long-term storage of food. Wheat contributed to the emergence of city-states in the Fertile Crescent, including the Babylonian and Assyrian empires. Wheat grain is a staple food used to make flour for leavened, flat and steamed breads, biscuits, cookies, cakes, breakfast cereal, pasta, noodles, couscous^[6] and for fermentation to make beer,^[7] other alcoholic beverages,^[8] or biofuel.^[9]
Wheat is planted to a limited extent as a forage crop for livestock, and its straw can be used as a construction material for roofing thatch.^[10]^[11] The whole grain can be milled to leave just the endosperm for white flour. The by-products of this are bran and germ. The whole grain is a concentrated source of vitamins, minerals, and protein, while the refined grain is mostly starch.

Origin

Spikelets of a hulled wheat, einkorn

Cultivation and repeated harvesting and sowing of the grains of wild grasses led to the creation of domestic strains, as mutant forms ('sports') of wheat were preferentially chosen by farmers. In domesticated wheat, grains are larger, and the seeds (inside the spikelets) remain attached to the ear by a toughened rachis during harvesting. In wild strains, a more fragile rachis allows the ear to easily shatter and disperse the spikelets.^[15] Selection for these traits by farmers might not have been deliberately intended, but simply have occurred because these traits made gathering the seeds easier; nevertheless such 'incidental' selection was an important part of crop domestication. As the traits that improve wheat as a food source also involve the loss of the plant's natural seed dispersal mechanisms, highly domesticated strains of wheat cannot survive in the wild.
Cultivation of wheat began to spread beyond the Fertile Crescent after about 8000 BCE. Jared Diamond traces the spread of cultivated emmer wheat starting in the Fertile Crescent about 8500 BCE. Archaeological analysis of wild emmer indicates that it was first cultivated in the southern Levant with finds at Iran dating back as far as 9600 BCE.^[16]^[17] Genetic analysis of wild einkorn wheat suggests that it was first grown in the Karacadag Mountains in southeastern Turkey. Dated archeological remains of einkorn wheat in settlement sites near this region, including those at Abu Hureyra in Syria, suggest the domestication of einkorn near the Karacadag Mountain Range.^[18] With the anomalous exception of two grains from Iraq ed-Dubb, the earliest carbon-14 date for einkorn wheat remains at Abu Hureyra is 7800 to 7500 years BCE.^[19]
Remains of harvested emmer from several sites near the Karacadag Range have been dated to between 8600 (at Cayonu) and 8400 BCE (Abu Hureyra), that is, in the Neolithic period. With the exception of Iraq ed-Dubb, the earliest carbon-14 dated remains of domesticated emmer wheat were found in the earliest levels of Tell Aswad, in the Damascus basin, near Mount Hermon in Syria. These remains were dated by Willem van Zeist and his assistant Johanna Bakker-Heeres to 8800 BCE. They also concluded that the settlers of Tell Aswad did not develop this form of emmer themselves, but brought the domesticated grains with them from an as yet unidentified location elsewhere.^[20]
The cultivation of emmer reached Greece, Cyprus and India by 6500 BCE, Egypt shortly after 6000 BCE, and Germany and Spain by 5000 BCE.^[21] "The early Egyptians were developers of bread and the use of the oven and developed baking into one of the first large-scale food production industries." ^[22] By 3000 BCE, wheat had reached England and Scandinavia. A millennium later it reached China. The first identifiable bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) with sufficient gluten for yeasted breads has been identified using DNA analysis in samples from a granary dating to approximately 1350 BCE at Assiros in Greek Macedonia.^[23]
Wheat continued to spread throughout Europe. In England, wheat straw (thatch) was used for roofing in the Bronze Age, and was in common use until the late 19th century.^[24]
The State Emblem of the Soviet Union featured a wreath made of wheat.

Farming techniques

Wheat harvest on the Palouse, Idaho, United States

Young wheat crop in a field near Solapur, Maharashtra, India

Technological advances in soil preparation and seed placement at planting time, use of crop rotation and fertilizers to improve plant growth, and advances in harvesting methods have all combined to promote wheat as a viable crop. Agricultural cultivation using horse collar leveraged plows (at about 3000 BCE) was one of the first innovations that increased productivity. Much later, when the use of seed drills replaced broadcasting sowing of seed in the 18th century, another great increase in productivity occurred.
Yields of pure wheat per unit area increased as methods of crop rotation were applied to long cultivated land, and the use of fertilizers became widespread. Improved agricultural husbandry has more recently included threshing machines and reaping machines (the 'combine harvester'), tractor-drawn cultivators and planters, and better varieties (see Green Revolution and Norin 10 wheat). Great expansion of wheat production occurred as new arable land was farmed in the Americas and Australia in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Genetics

Wheat genetics is more complicated than that of most other domesticated species. Some wheat species are diploid, with two sets of chromosomes, but many are stable polyploids, with four sets of chromosomes (tetraploid) or six (hexaploid).^[25]

Einkorn wheat (T. monococcum) is diploid (AA, two complements of seven chromosomes, 2n=14).^[1]
Most tetraploid wheats (e.g. emmer and durum wheat) are derived from wild emmer, T. dicoccoides. Wild emmer is itself the result of a hybridization between two diploid wild grasses, T. urartu and a wild goatgrass such as Aegilops searsii or Ae. speltoides. The unknown grass has never been identified among now surviving wild grasses, but the closest living relative is Aegilops speltoides.^{[citation needed]} The hybridization that formed wild emmer (AABB) occurred in the wild, long before domestication,^[25] and was driven by natural selection.

Hexaploid wheats evolved in farmers' fields. Either domesticated emmer or durum wheat hybridized with yet another wild diploid grass (Aegilops tauschii) to make the hexaploid wheats, spelt wheat and bread wheat.^[25] These have three sets of paired chromosomes, three times as many as in diploid wheat.

The presence of certain versions of wheat genes has been important for crop yields. Apart from mutant versions of genes selected in antiquity during domestication, there has been more recent deliberate selection of alleles that affect growth characteristics. Genes for the 'dwarfing' trait, first used by Japanese wheat breeders to produce short-stalked wheat, have had a huge effect on wheat yields world-wide, and were major factors in the success of the Green Revolution in Mexico and Asia. Dwarfing genes enable the carbon that is fixed in the plant during photosynthesis to be diverted towards seed production, and they also help prevent the problem of lodging. 'Lodging' occurs when an ear stalk falls over in the wind and rots on the ground, and heavy nitrogenous fertilization of wheat makes the grass grow taller and become more susceptible to this problem. By 1997, 81% of the developing world's wheat area was planted to semi-dwarf wheats, giving both increased yields and better response to nitrogenous fertilizer.
Wild grasses in the genus Triticum and related genera, and grasses such as rye have been a source of many disease-resistance traits for cultivated wheat breeding since the 1930s.^[26]
Heterosis, or hybrid vigor (as in the familiar F1 hybrids of maize), occurs in common (hexaploid) wheat, but it is difficult to produce seed of hybrid cultivars on a commercial scale (as is done with maize) because wheat flowers are perfect and normally self-pollinate. Commercial hybrid wheat seed has been produced using chemical hybridizing agents; these chemicals selectively interfere with pollen development, or naturally occurring cytoplasmic male sterility systems. Hybrid wheat has been a limited commercial success in Europe (particularly France), the USA and South Africa.^[27] F1 hybrid wheat cultivars should not be confused with the standard method of breeding inbred wheat cultivars by crossing two lines using hand emasculation, then selfing or inbreeding the progeny many (ten or more) generations before release selections are identified to be released as a variety or cultivar.
Synthetic hexaploids made by crossing the wild goatgrass wheat ancestor Aegilops tauschii and various durum wheats are now being deployed, and these increase the genetic diversity of cultivated wheats.^[28]^[29]^[30]
Stomata (or leaf pores) are involved in both uptake of carbon dioxide gas from the atmosphere and water vapor losses from the leaf due to water transpiration. Basic physiological investigation of these gas exchange processes has yielded valuable carbon isotope based methods that are used for breeding wheat varieties with improved water-use efficiency. These varieties can improve crop productivity in rain-fed dry-land wheat farms.^[31]
In 2010, a team of UK scientists funded by BBSRC announced they had decoded the wheat genome for the first time (95% of the genome of a variety of wheat known as Chinese Spring line 42).^[32] This genome was released in a basic format for scientists and plant breeders to use but was not a fully annotated sequence which was reported in some of the media.^[33]
On 29 November 2012, whole-genome sequence of bread wheat has been published.^[34] Random shotgun libraries of total DNA and cDNA from the T. aestivum cv. Chinese Spring (CS42) were sequenced in Roche 454 pyrosequencer using GS FLX Titanium and GS FLX+ platforms to generate 85 Gb of sequence (220 million reads), equivalent to 5X genome coverage and identified between 94,000 and 96,000 genes.^[34]
The wheat whole genome sequence data provides direct access to all 96,000 genes and represents an essential step towards a systematic understanding of biology and engineering the cereal crop for valuable traits. Its implications in cereal genetics and breeding includes the examination of genome variation, association mapping using natural populations, performing wide crosses and alien introgression, studying the expression and nucleotide polymorphism in transcriptomes, analyzing population genetics and evolutionary biology, and studying the epigenetic modifications. Moreover, the availability of large-scale genetic markers generated through NGS technology will facilitate trait mapping and make marker-assisted breeding much feasible.^[35]
Moreover, the WGS data not only facilitate in deciphering the complex phenomena such as heterosis and epigenetics, it may also enable breeders to predict which fragment of a chromosome is derived from which parent in the progeny line, thereby recognizing crossover events occurring in every progeny line and inserting markers on genetic and physical maps without ambiguity. In due course, this will assist in introducing specific chromosomal segments from one cultivar to another. Besides, the researchers had identified diverse classes of genes participating in energy production, metabolism and growth that were probably linked with crop yield, which can now be utilized for the development of transgenic wheat. Thus whole genome sequence of wheat and the availability of thousands of SNPs will inevitably permit the breeders to stride towards identifying novel traits, providing biological knowledge and empowering biodiversity-based breeding.^[35]

Plant breeding

Main article: Physiological and molecular wheat breeding

Sheaved and stooked wheat

Wheat

In traditional agricultural systems wheat populations often consist of landraces, informal farmer-maintained populations that often maintain high levels of morphological diversity. Although landraces of wheat are no longer grown in Europe and North America, they continue to be important elsewhere. The origins of formal wheat breeding lie in the nineteenth century, when single line varieties were created through selection of seed from a single plant noted to have desired properties. Modern wheat breeding developed in the first years of the twentieth century and was closely linked to the development of Mendelian genetics. The standard method of breeding inbred wheat cultivars is by crossing two lines using hand emasculation, then selfing or inbreeding the progeny. Selections are identified (shown to have the genes responsible for the varietal differences) ten or more generations before release as a variety or cultivar.^[36]
F1 hybrid wheat cultivars should not be confused with wheat cultivars deriving from standard plant breeding. Heterosis or hybrid vigor (as in the familiar F1 hybrids of maize) occurs in common (hexaploid) wheat, but it is difficult to produce seed of hybrid cultivars on a commercial scale as is done with maize because wheat flowers are complete and normally self-pollinate.^[36] Commercial hybrid wheat seed has been produced using chemical hybridizing agents, plant growth regulators that selectively interfere with pollen development, or naturally occurring cytoplasmic male sterility systems. Hybrid wheat has been a limited commercial success in Europe (particularly France), the United States and South Africa.^[37]
The major breeding objectives include high grain yield, good quality, disease and insect resistance and tolerance to abiotic stresses include mineral, moisture and heat tolerance. The major diseases in temperate environments include the following, arranged in a rough order of their significance from cooler to warmer climates: eyespot, Stagonospora nodorum blotch (also known as glume blotch), yellow or stripe rust, powdery mildew, Septoria tritici blotch (sometimes known as leaf blotch), brown or leaf rust, Fusarium head blight, tan spot and stem rust. In tropical areas, spot blotch (also known as Helminthosporium leaf blight) is also important.
Wheat has also been the subject of mutation breeding, with the use of gamma, x-rays, ultraviolet light, and sometimes harsh chemicals. The varieties of wheat created through this methods are in the hundreds (varieties being as far back as 1960), more of them being created in higher populated countries such as China.^[38]

Hulled versus free-threshing wheat

A mature wheat field in Israel

The four wild species of wheat, along with the domesticated varieties einkorn,^[39] emmer^[40] and spelt,^[41] have hulls. This more primitive morphology (in evolutionary terms) consists of toughened glumes that tightly enclose the grains, and (in domesticated wheats) a semi-brittle rachis that breaks easily on threshing. The result is that when threshed, the wheat ear breaks up into spikelets. To obtain the grain, further processing, such as milling or pounding, is needed to remove the hulls or husks. In contrast, in free-threshing (or naked) forms such as durum wheat and common wheat, the glumes are fragile and the rachis tough. On threshing, the chaff breaks up, releasing the grains. Hulled wheats are often stored as spikelets because the toughened glumes give good protection against pests of stored grain.^[39]

Naming

For more details on this topic, see Taxonomy of wheat.

Sack of wheat

Model of a wheat grain, Botanical Museum Greifswald

There are many botanical classification systems used for wheat species, discussed in a separate article on Wheat taxonomy. The name of a wheat species from one information source may not be the name of a wheat species in another.
Within a species, wheat cultivars are further classified by wheat breeders and farmers in terms of:

Growing season, such as winter wheat vs. spring wheat.^[11]
Protein content. Bread wheat protein content ranges from 10% in some soft wheats with high starch contents, to 15% in hard wheats.
The quality of the wheat protein gluten. This protein can determine the suitability of a wheat to a particular dish. A strong and elastic gluten present in bread wheats enables dough to trap carbon dioxide during leavening, but elastic gluten interferes with the rolling of pasta into thin sheets. The gluten protein in durum wheats used for pasta is strong but not elastic.
Grain color (red, white or amber). Many wheat varieties are reddish-brown due to phenolic compounds present in the bran layer which are transformed to pigments by browning enzymes. White wheats have a lower content of phenolics and browning enzymes, and are generally less astringent in taste than red wheats. The yellowish color of durum wheat and semolina flour made from it is due to a carotenoid pigment called lutein, which can be oxidized to a colorless form by enzymes present in the grain.

Einkorn: Man's first form of cultivated wheat, grown by farmers more than 10,000 years ago.

Einkorn wheat (from German Einkorn, literally "single grain") can refer either to the wild species of wheat, Triticum boeoticum, or to the domesticated form, Triticum monococcum. The wild and domesticated forms are either considered separate species, as here, or as subspecies of T. monococcum. Einkorn is a diploid species of hulled wheat, with tough glumes ('husks') that tightly enclose the grains. The cultivated form is similar to the wild, except that the ear stays intact when ripe and the seeds are larger.

inkorn wheat is one of the earliest cultivated forms of wheat, alongside emmer wheat (T. dicoccum). Grains of wild einkorn have been found in Epi-Paleolithic sites of the Fertile Crescent. It was first domesticated approximately 7500 BC (7050 BC ≈ 9000 BP), in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) or B (PPNB) periods.^[1] Evidence from DNA finger-printing suggests einkorn was domesticated near Karaca Dağ in southeast Turkey, an area in which a number of PPNB farming villages have been found.^[2] Its cultivation decreased in the Bronze Age, and today it is a relict crop that is rarely planted, though it has found a new market as a health food. It remains as a local crop, often for bulgur (cracked wheat) or as animal feed, in mountainous areas of France, Morocco, the former Yugoslavia, Turkey and other countries. It often survives on poor soils where other species of wheat fail.^[3]

Einkorn is an ancient grain, and is known as the oldest variety of "wheat." Einkorn is also sometimes referred to as "farro" or "farro einkorn." Einkorn was first cultivated 5,000 to 10,000 years ago. It is classified as a "diploid" because it only has two sets of chromosomes. Modern wheat varieties are classified as "hexaploid," having six sets of chromosomes, due to a long history of hybridization. Einkorn is thought to have originated in the upper area of the fertile crescent of the Near East (Tigris-Euphrates regions), and is quite probably the main grain recorded in the earliest biblical history. Einkorn became widely distributed throughout the Near East, Transcaucasia, the Mediterranean region, southwestern Europe, and the Balkans, and was one of the first cereals cultivated for food.

Another ancient grain, emmer, has four sets of chromosomes and was probably an early hybrid of wild einkorn that was more suitable for a wider range of climates and geographical areas, particularly warmer climates. Emmer became the predominant wheat throughout the Near and Far East, Europe and northern Africa until about 4,000-1,000 BCE, although it was still cultivated in isolated regions such as south-central Russia into the last century, and even today remains an important crop in Ethiopia and a minor crop in Italy and India.

The oldest hexaploid grain and the predecessor to modern wheat is probably spelt. Spelt was a hybrid of emmer with more adaptability then emmer. These three ancient grains are known as "the covered wheats," since the kernels do not thresh free of their hard coverings, making them more labor intensive to mill. These ancient grains went through a long history of hybridizations to make them easier to mill and process into our modern day wheat, and to make them more desirable for bread making with a higher gluten content. But due to gluten toxicity issues in modern times, many are reviving the ancient varieties of grains, and einkorn is the oldest.

Nutritional Characteristics of Einkorn

The ancient grain einkorn (triticum monococcum) is packed with nutrition. It is a rich source of the beta carotene lutein, a powerful antioxidant. Einkorn has the highest amounts of lutein of any other variety of wheat. Einkorn is also a rich source of tocotrienols and tocopherols, powerful antioxidants and forms of Vitamin E. Compared to modern wheat varieties, einkorn has higher levels of protein, crude fat, phosphorous, and potassium.

Gluten and Toxicity

Since einkorn is such an ancient grain and the only known diploid classified variety of wheat still known to exist today, there has been considerable interest in the issue of gluten toxicity. One way of measuring gluten toxicity is by the gliadin to glutenin ratio, and einkorn has a much more favorable ratio than modern wheat varieties. Einkorn has a gliadin to glutenin ratio of 2:1 compared to 0.8:1 for durum and hard red wheat. While this lower gluten ratio may hold some promise for gluten intolerance disorders, it should be cautioned that einkorn DOES contain gluten, and so those desiring to avoid all gluten are NOT recommended to consume einkorn.

Emmer was widely cultivated in Mesopotamia (contemporary Middle East)and later adopted by the Romans. Other forms of wheat eventually replaced emmer as they had higher yields and husks that could be removed without pounding or grinding. Emmer wheat is especially popular in Italy (called farro). It is used in a number of ways in Italian cooking, but is most popular boiled whole and served like a risotto. It is also used to make pastas

Einkorn is even older than emmer, believed to be one of the earliest recorded grains in the Bible, known as shippon in Hebrew. It provides a rich source of beta-carotene(lutein), a powerful antioxidant.
Both emmer and einkorn are high in protein, fiber, and minerals. Since these wheats have a gluten structure different from modern wheat, it is a good alternative for people with gluten allergies. That being said, einkorn and emmer do contain gluten, and so those desiring to avoid gluten altogether are not recommended to consume these wheats. Consult with your doctor to see if einkorn or emmer wheat is safe for you.
Since gluten allergies are becoming so predominant in modern times, many people are now turning to einkorn and emmer—including chefs themselves—as healthy and delicious wheat choices.

"Here are seven fun facts I learned about the nutritional content and health benefits of einkorn wheat:

Wheat gluten studies have found einkorn wheat may be non-toxic to suffers of gluten intolerance and celiacs disease
Einkorn wheat has 14 chromosomes while modern wheats have 42 (Friendly to the body’s digestive system)
Einkorn contains 3 to 4 times more beta-carotene than modern wheats (Boosts immunity, helps prevent cancer and heart disease)
Einkorn contains 35 times more Vitamin A than modern wheats (Healthy eyes, reproductive organs and prevention of many cancers)
Einkorn contains 3 to 4 times more lutein than modern wheats (Prevention of macular degeneration and cataracts)
Einkorn contains 4-5 times more riboflavin than modern wheats (Used by the body to create energy and is an antioxidant that slows aging)
Einkorn is a “hulled” wheat, whereas modern wheats are not. The hull can protect the grain from stray chemical contamination and insects making it an easier grain to grow ORGANICALLY!"

History of Wheat domestication

Event	Year
People were collecting and eating wild Emmer Wheat in the Near East (as well as barley). Evidence for this comes from the finding of wild Emmer Wheat seeds in an archaeological site on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in Israel.	c 17000 BC
People were collecting and eating wild Einkorn Wheat in the Near East and were probably doing so well before this. Evidence from this stems from the finding of carbonised remains of wild Einkorn Wheat seeds in archaeological sites in northern Syria. Seeds of the wild forms can be distinguised from the domesticated forms because they are thinner in appearance.	c10000 BC
People had domesticated hulled Emmer Wheat through selection of plants with plumper seeds than wild forms which were non-brittle so they were retained during harvesting and only shed through the threshing process. Evidence for this comes from the occurrence of plump Emmer Wheat seeds at an archaeological site near Damascus in Israel. Emmer Wheat was the main cereal crop in the Near East from the very beginnings of agriculture in this region. It also came to be cultivated further afield in the Aegean region (e.g. Greece), on the Balkan Peninsula and in central Europe and remained the main cereal crop through the Neolithic period and into the Bronze Age although Einkorn Wheat was often grown as well.	c 7800 BC
Einkorn Wheat had been domesticated through selection and propagation of plants with plumper seeds than wild forms. Evidence for this domestication comes from finding these plumper seeds at archaeological sites in Syria, Turkey and Iran. With time Einkorn Wheat becomes a major crop in the near East in the Neolithic period. It spread further than this in the Neolithic period to Cyprus, Greece, the Balkan Peninsula, Europe and the Caucasus. For instance, domesticated Einkorn has been found in in Greek agricultural settlements dating back to 6000-6500 BC.	c7000 BC
Selection of free-threshing, naked, forms of Emmer Wheat has been successful although hulled Emmer and Einkorn continue to be grown. However, by the Late Bronze Age, growing of naked wheats predominated in the Mediterranean and Near East regions. Durum Wheat is derived from these naked wheat types.	6000-7000 BC
Earliest record of people using Bread Wheat (the hulled Spelta variety). This occurred in the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas which makes sense because this is within the main geographical distribution of Aegilops squarrosa which is the grass that at some stage formed a fertile hybrid with cultivated Emmer Wheat to form Bread Wheat. Free-threshing, naked, Bread Wheat is thought to have developed soon afterwards (before 4000 BC).

rebekkah (r-b-q)

ribhqeh (lit., "connection"), from Semitic root r-b-q, "to tie, couple or join"^[1] or "to secure")

The news of her birth was told to her great-uncle Abraham after he returned from Akeidat Yitzchak (the Binding of Isaac), the episode in which Abraham was told by God to bring Isaac as a sacrifice on a mountain.

Rebecca means 'a heifer, a young cow', a symbol of fertility

Isaac means 'may God smile/laugh', perhaps a reference to his mother Sarah's laughter when she heard she was to become pregnant in her old age

Jacob means 'he who grabs for something' - either his brother's heel at the moment of birth, or his brother's inheritance later on

Esau was nicknamed Edom, which meant 'red'; he was born with a ruddy complexion then spent most of his time outdoors, so his face and skin may have been unusually red.

LOVE STORY
		The Search for a Wife Genesis 24 1 Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. ²Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his house, who had charge of all that he had, ‘Put your hand under my thigh ³and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live, ⁴but will go to my country and to my kindred and get a wife for my son Isaac.’ ⁵The servant said to him, ‘Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land; must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?’ ⁶Abraham said to him, ‘See to it that you do not take my son back there. ⁷The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me and swore to me, “To your offspring I will give this land”, he will send his angel before you; you shall take a wife for my son from there. ⁸But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine; only you must not take my son back there.’ ⁹So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter. 10 Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, taking all kinds of choice gifts from his master; and he set out and went to Aram-naharaim, to the city of Nahor. ¹¹He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water; it was towards evening, the time when women go out to draw water. ¹²And he said, ‘O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. ¹³I am standing here by the spring of water, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. ¹⁴Let the girl to whom I shall say, “Please offer your jar that I may drink”, and who shall say, “Drink, and I will water your camels”—let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.’ Rebekah at the Well 15 Before he had finished speaking, there was Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, coming out with her water-jar on her shoulder. ¹⁶The girl was very fair to look upon, a virgin whom no man had known. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up. ¹⁷Then the servant ran to meet her and said, ‘Please let me sip a little water from your jar.’ ¹⁸‘Drink, my lord,’ she said, and quickly lowered her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink. ¹⁹When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, ‘I will draw for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.’ ²⁰So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels. ²¹The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful. 22 When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold nose-ring weighing a half-shekel, and two bracelets for her arms weighing ten gold shekels, ²³and said, ‘Tell me whose daughter you are. Is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?’ ²⁴She said to him, ‘I am the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.’ ²⁵She added, ‘We have plenty of straw and fodder and a place to spend the night.’ ²⁶The man bowed his head and worshipped the Lord ²⁷and said, ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness towards my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the way to the house of my master’s kin.’ 28 Then the girl ran and told her mother’s household about these things. ²⁹Rebekah had a brother whose name was Laban; and Laban ran out to the man, to the spring. ³⁰As soon as he had seen the nose-ring, and the bracelets on his sister’s arms, and when he heard the words of his sister Rebekah, ‘Thus the man spoke to me’, he went to the man; and there he was, standing by the camels at the spring. ³¹He said, ‘Come in, O blessed of the Lord. Why do you stand outside when I have prepared the house and a place for the camels?’ ³²So the man came into the house; and Laban unloaded the camels, and gave him straw and fodder for the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him. Negotiations ³³Then food was set before him to eat; but he said, ‘I will not eat until I have told my errand.’ He said, ‘Speak on.’ 34 So he said, ‘I am Abraham’s servant. ³⁵The Lord has greatly blessed my master, and he has become wealthy; he has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and donkeys. ³⁶And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and he has given him all that he has. ³⁷My master made me swear, saying, “You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live; ³⁸but you shall go to my father’s house, to my kindred, and get a wife for my son.” ³⁹I said to my master, “Perhaps the woman will not follow me.” ⁴⁰But he said to me, “The Lord, before whom I walk, will send his angel with you and make your way successful. You shall get a wife for my son from my kindred, from my father’s house. ⁴¹Then you will be free from my oath, when you come to my kindred; even if they will not give her to you, you will be free from my oath.” 42 ‘I came today to the spring, and said, “O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if now you will only make successful the way I am going! ⁴³I am standing here by the spring of water; let the young woman who comes out to draw, to whom I shall say, ‘Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,’ ⁴⁴and who will say to me, ‘Drink, and I will draw for your camels also’—let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.” 45 ‘Before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah coming out with her water-jar on her shoulder; and she went down to the spring, and drew. I said to her, “Please let me drink.” ⁴⁶She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder, and said, “Drink, and I will also water your camels.” So I drank, and she also watered the camels. ⁴⁷Then I asked her, “Whose daughter are you?” She said, “The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.” So I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her arms. ⁴⁸Then I bowed my head and worshipped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to obtain the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son. ⁴⁹Now then, if you will deal loyally and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so that I may turn either to the right hand or to the left.’ 50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered, ‘The thing comes from the Lord; we cannot speak to you anything bad or good. ⁵¹Look, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has spoken.’ 52 When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed himself to the ground before the Lord. The Gifts ⁵³And the servant brought out jewellery of silver and of gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave to her brother and to her mother costly ornaments. ⁵⁴Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank, and they spent the night there. When they rose in the morning, he said, ‘Send me back to my master.’ ⁵⁵Her brother and her mother said, ‘Let the girl remain with us a while, at least ten days; after that she may go.’ ⁵⁶But he said to them, ‘Do not delay me, since the Lord has made my journey successful; let me go, that I may go to my master.’ Rebekah Consents ⁵⁷They said, ‘We will call the girl, and ask her.’ ⁵⁸And they called Rebekah, and said to her, ‘Will you go with this man?’ She said, ‘I will.’ ⁵⁹So they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse along with Abraham’s servant and his men. ⁶⁰And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, ‘May you, our sister, become thousands of myriads; may your offspring gain possession of the gates of their foes.’ ⁶¹Then Rebekah and her maids rose up, mounted the camels, and followed the man; thus the servant took Rebekah, and went his way. 62 Now Isaac had come from Beer-lahai-roi, and was settled in the Negeb. Love At First Sight ⁶³Isaac went out in the evening to walk in the field; and looking up, he saw camels coming. ⁶⁴And Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she slipped quickly from the camel, ⁶⁵and said to the servant, ‘Who is the man over there, walking in the field to meet us?’ The servant said, ‘It is my master.’ So she took her veil and covered herself. ⁶⁶And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. ⁶⁷Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.		Rebecca's Two Sons, Esau and Jacob Genesis 25:19-34 19 These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, ²⁰and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean. ²¹Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. ²²The children struggled together within her; and she said, ‘If it is to be this way, why do I live?’ So she went to inquire of the Lord. ²³And the Lord said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger.’ ²⁴When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. ²⁵The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. ²⁶Afterwards his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. 27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skilful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. ²⁸Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob. Jacob and Rebekah steal the Birthright 29 Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. ³⁰Esau said to Jacob, ‘Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!’ (Therefore he was called Edom.) ³¹Jacob said, ‘First sell me your birthright.’ ³²Esau said, ‘I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?’ ³³Jacob said, ‘Swear to me first.’ So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. ³⁴Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. Isaac Blesses Jacob Genesis 27 1 When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, ‘My son’; and he answered, ‘Here I am.’ ²He said, ‘See, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. ³Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me. ⁴Then prepare for me savoury food, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.’ Isaac Meets his Match 5 Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, ⁶Rebekah said to her son Jacob, ‘I heard your father say to your brother Esau, ⁷“Bring me game, and prepare for me savoury food to eat, that I may bless you before the Lord before I die.” ⁸Now therefore, my son, obey my word as I command you. ⁹Go to the flock, and get me two choice kids, so that I may prepare from them savory food for your father, such as he likes; ¹⁰and you shall take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.’ ¹¹But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, ‘Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a man of smooth skin. ¹²Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.’ ¹³His mother said to him, ‘Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my word, and go, get them for me.’ ¹⁴So he went and got them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared savoury food, such as his father loved. The Deception ¹⁵Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob; ¹⁶and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷Then she handed the savoury food, and the bread that she had prepared, to her son Jacob. 18 So he went in to his father, and said, ‘My father’; and he said, ‘Here I am; who are you, my son?’ ¹⁹Jacob said to his father, ‘I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.’ ²⁰But Isaac said to his son, ‘How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?’ He answered, ‘Because the Lord your God granted me success.’ ²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, ‘Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.’ ²²So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, ‘The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.’ ²³He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. ²⁴He said, ‘Are you really my son Esau?’ He answered, ‘I am.’ ²⁵Then he said, ‘Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.’ So he brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. ²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, ‘Come near and kiss me, my son.’ ²⁷So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said, ‘Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. The Blessing ²⁸May God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. ²⁹Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!’ Esau's Lost Blessing 30 As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from his hunting. ³¹He also prepared savoury food, and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, ‘Let my father sit up and eat of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.’ ³²His father Isaac said to him, ‘Who are you?’ He answered, ‘I am your firstborn son, Esau.’ ³³Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, ‘Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him?—yes, and blessed he shall be!’ ³⁴When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, ‘Bless me, me also, father!’ ³⁵But he said, ‘Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.’ ³⁶Esau said, ‘Is he not rightly named Jacob?* For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright; and look, now he has taken away my blessing.’ Then he said, ‘Have you not reserved a blessing for me?’ ³⁷Isaac answered Esau, ‘I have already made him your lord, and I have given him all his brothers as servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?’ ³⁸Esau said to his father, ‘Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!’ And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. 39 Then his father Isaac answered him: ‘See, away from* the fatness of the earth shall your home be, and away from* the dew of heaven on high. ⁴⁰By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you break loose,* you shall break his yoke from your neck.’ Jacob Escapes from Esau's Fury 41 Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, ‘The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.’ ⁴²But the words of her elder son Esau were told to Rebekah; so she sent and called her younger son Jacob and said to him, ‘Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you. ⁴³Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran, ⁴⁴and stay with him for a while, until your brother’s fury turns away— ⁴⁵until your brother’s anger against you turns away, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send, and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?’ 46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, ‘I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?’