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Grains are grasses that produce edible seeds. They are native to what is now Iran, Iraq and Turkey, or the Fertile Crescent, where they were first cultivated some 10,000 years ago. Grains enjoyed today include wheat, rye, rice, oats, barley, corn, sorghum, millet, buckwheat and flax.
Most grains are undemanding about their growing situation. They enjoy full sun but do just fine in cool, cloudy climates with poor soils and little water. (Rice, a semi-aquatic annual grass, is the exception here.)
Also, most grains germinate in 2 days. That beats most annual weeds!
When the grasses become golden brown and the kernels, or seeds, are dry, it is time to harvest. Then the grain is threshed, loosening the stalks and outer husks from the kernels. Separating the threshed hulls, also called chaff, from the kernel is called winnowing.
Makes 1 loaf