Farro is an ancient grain that is rapidly growing in popularity as more people discover that modern wheat varieties extremely high in gluten are difficult to digest.
This is especially true if the wheat is not traditionally prepared via sprouting, soaking, or sour leavening.
Unfortunately, there is some confusion about whether farro is truly an unhybridized, low gluten form of wheat that those who are gluten intolerant can potentially eat without symptoms.
The problem occurs because the exact definition of farro continues to be debated.
Here’s the lowdown about this ancient grain so you know how to source the best kind and understand exactly what you are getting if you choose to buy it.
What Exactly is Farro?
Maria Speck, author of Ancient Grains for Modern Meals writes that the term farro is commonly used when referring to three particular ancient wheat varieties (not to be confused with heirloom wheat (naturally hybridized) from around the world such as red fife, halychanka, and white sonora among others).
Farro was first cultivated primarily in the Mesopotamia area of the Middle East (the Fertile Crescent) and is still grown today in Italy. (1)
Perhaps this is why people normally sensitive to wheat can often eat wheat in Italy with no problems, but the modern, non-farro wheat in the United States (such as “soft white”, “hard white”, “soft red”, and “hard red”), even if organic, is not easily tolerated.
The three ancient wheat varieties considered to fall under the farro umbrella include:
- farro piccolo, popularly known as einkorn.
- farro medio, popularly known as emmer (Hebrew for mother).
- farro grande, popularly known as spelt.
If you see farro at the healthfood store in a bag, know that it is typically the emmer variety and likely imported from Italy.
The confusion arises because einkorn is the only one of the three farro varieties that is completely unhybridized and still in ancient form.
Emmer and spelt, while certainly less hybridized and lower in gluten than modern wheat varieties, are hybridized nonetheless.
Even people who are knowledgeable about traditional baking with different wheat varieties get confused about farro. For example, this comment was posted on my article about how to make a sourdough starter:
I’m with you all the way until you say Einkorn is the only unhybridized flour available. It is one of the more common ones, usually lumped together with Emmer and Spelt. My severely gluten intolerant husband reacts to spelt as he does to modern wheat so I toss that one out the window.
No doubt this person is reacting to spelt because it is hybridized and even though classified as farro, cannot be compared with the digestibility and the good gluten contained in einkorn.
Wheat Genetics
Human consumption of wild einkorn, the most ancient of all wheat varieties and the only one of the three types of farro to remain completely unhybridized, dates back approximately 12,000 years ago, to the Paleolithic Era, also referred to as the Old Stone Age. (2)
In fact, einkorn is believed to have been the very FIRST crop farmed by humans!
Hunter-gatherers living at that time in the Fertile Crescent discovered that they could plant and cultivate the einkorn seeds they gathered for food. This marks the birth of agriculture and humans abandoning a nomadic life for the first time to settle into civilized communities.
The genetics of einkorn wheat remains wild and unchanged to this day, while all other types, including the farro varieties known as spelt and emmer, were created via hybridization.
How to know that einkorn is unhybridized and spelt and emmer are not? The evidence is in the sets of chromosomes each farro variety possesses. Most plants are diploid, meaning they have two sets of 7 chromosomes – one from a male parent and one from a female parent. Einkorn is a diploid (wild) wheat.
When wheat is hybridized, additional sets of (7) chromosomes are added either by man or nature.
Emmer wheat appears to have been hybridized about 2,000 years after einkorn via the union of two wild grasses. This resulted in a total of 28 chromosomes.
Kamut (an ancient grain found in Egyptian tombs) and durum wheat are both descendants of emmer.
Bulgur is a cereal and traditional food commonly made from the durum (emmer) variety.
Spelt, the third farro variety, was the first wheat hybridization that occurred between cultivated emmer and a wild grass, creating a wheat variety with 42 chromosomes (6 sets of 7).
Modern wheat varieties are descended from spelt.
Hybrid Is Not Necessarily GMO
It’s very important to understand that hybridization of a plant does not mean that it has been genetically modified.
Hybridization can occur naturally in the wild or via selective breeding in farming to favor desirable and inheritable characteristics that are either dominant or recessive genetic traits.
In the case of wheat, strains that are high in gluten have been favored for hybridization on mega-farms in recent decades, given that they are more desirable in food processing.
The result is that modern wheat is much higher in gluten than unhybridized (wild) strains such as einkorn or even natural wheat hybrids like emmer and spelt.
Genetic modification of wheat, on the other hand, involves incorporating genes from other organisms…even animals, bacteria and other microbes…into plants. In short, hybrid wheat is not necessarily GMO (although all GMOs are hybrids).
As of this writing, GMO wheat is not being commercialized on a widespread basis (although you should ALWAYS buy organic wheat anyway because conventional crops are often sprayed with glyphosate right before harvest).
What Type of Farro is Best?
Now that you know about the three types of farro, einkorn, emmer and spelt, which is most desirable to eat?
In my view, einkorn is the clear winner, and the ancient wheat that I choose to buy and use in my home because it is the only farro variety that is still in a truly ancient state.
Being in the wild state as it was originally 12,000 years ago during the Paleolithic Era means that einkorn is naturally low in gluten. Not only is einkorn low in gluten, the gluten is different from the gluten molecules present in the other two farro varieties: emmer and spelt.
The gluten in einkorn wheat lacks the high molecular weight gluten proteins that many people find hard to digest. In fact, it could be said that the gluten in einkorn is good gluten because many folks who are gluten intolerant easily digest it! (3)
Note that einkorn would not be appropriate for most people with Celiac disease, although some Celiacs tolerate einkorn sourdough.
Be Selective With Sourcing
Because the term “farro” can refer to any one of three different varieties of ancient wheat, only one of which is truly unhybridized, it is best to buy wheat labeled as einkorn and not just farro. Buying a bag of farro, as mentioned above, usually means you are buying emmer, not einkorn.
Another problem with buying farro at the store is that the label doesn’t usually tell you if the farro is whole, semi-pearled (part of the bran removed), or pearled (no bran at all).
In my experience, buying whole farro labeled as einkorn is the best way to go because all the nutrients are retained in this form.
In addition, when you grind einkorn, it is a much lighter and whiter flour even in its whole grain state than modern wheat, spelt, or emmer.
There really isn’t any need to use semi-pearled or pearled farro when you are choosing the unhybridized einkorn variety!
Does Farro Fit Your Menu?
No doubt about it, farro is expensive. It is a low yield crop compared with modern wheat, and the price is indicative of this.
If you wish to try it to improve the digestibility of your homemade wheat-based creations, this source of organic farro is excellent and offers all three types: emmer, spelt, and einkorn (seasonally) in both whole and sprouted form.
Hint: When einkorn is temporarily unavailable, I buy emmer as the next best type of farro, as it is less hybridized than spelt (28 chromosomes compared to 42 for spelt).
What source of farro do you prefer?
Have you found it to be more digestible than modern forms of wheat?
(1) Ancient Grains for Modern Meals
(2) The History and Future of Ancient Einkorn Wheat Is Written in Its Genes
(3) Journal of European Food Research and Technology, Studies on the protein composition and baking quality of einkorn lines
Hello! What is your opinion about einkorn from Jovial?
Thanks!
It’s excellent! I used to buy their sprouted einkorn, but now grind myself since that produce is, sadly, no longer offered.
Love Farro! Wish I could get more of it … and cheaper!