Most of them said to me, "Wheat is wheat, it all has glutens. There's nothing special about
your wheat, get over it. People who say they can eat, it it's all in their head."
Oh, well good. "Thank you very much. I'll have one of them call you up sometime and explain that."
I just met, Bob Quinn, from, Big Sandy Montana. And what do you do, Bob?
(ragtime piano)
I'm an organic farmer of 30 years there. That's awesome, 30 years! Well, thank you, it's a lot
of fun. Are you kind of lonely up there do you have... Well, I used to be. I used to
be quite lonely but now, gosh, I've got more calls in the last six months than I had
last 30 years of people who want to change because they can't afford to make
the chemical system work anymore. That is so awesome! Yeah, it's quite exciting.
Such good news. So, what are you speaking on today?
I'm speaking on the future of food and I'm using as a background my experience with
ancient wheat and modern wheat.
What time are you speaking? I am going to listen to that.
Well, it's at 10:30. I only eat ancient wheat.
Oh, good for you! Well, thank you very much, I appreciate that.
I'm enlightened already.
Well, good for you. Well, I hope I can give you some more reasons to share with your
neighbors and friends about why you should make the switch. So, you must be
growing wheat. I am. That's awesome. We've had a wheat and cattle ranch for,
my grandfather started in 1920
so we've been there 97 years. Oh, I'm so glad you walked by. So, so how long have
you had the awareness about modern and ancient wheat? Because so many people
just don't know about it, yet. Well, we didn't either. We started ancient
as a novelty. And we made some pasta out of it and gave it to a friend
and, who could not eat modern wheat at all and she did a little kinesiology muscle
testing on it and she says, "I think I can eat this." She called up the next day and she says,
"What is this stuff?" she says, "When I eat it, it makes me feel better," and that was
the beginning of a whole new world for us. It not only was neutral, it was
positive, and she gave some to her, ah, sister, who is also intolerant to lots of
foods and sensitive to lots of foods, including wheat, and she could eat this
and after she ate it for a few weeks, she was less sensitive to other foods, so
then we thought, okay, there's something really going on here. I want to know what.
And when did this happen? This happened about '88.
'88! Yeah. I just got on the bandwagon two years ago!
Oh, well, that's alright, that's alright. Well, we've done a lot of research in the last
twenty, well, ten years we really hit pay dirt in Italy, our research in Italy.
We published 22 different peer-reviewed journal articles mostly now recently
about human chronic diseases. Absolutely. And showing the difference between a diet of
ancient wheat and modern wheat in helping with diabetes, heart disease, irritable bowel
syndrome, fatty acid, or fatty liver syndrome, and those kinds of things.
Wouldn't it be amazing if we could get this switched over? It's so simple. So,.. If we can get some
government, U.S. government-funded studies here to show it because, in America we
think, you know, everybody else is second-rate in what they've published and
what their research show, it has to be in America, you know, and if we could have
that happen and demonstrate what we're seeing in Italy is also true here with
not only ancient grain Khorasan like we're growing, but einkhorn and
spelt and amaranth and some of the heirloom wheats, I think it would be a boon. So,
obviously, you had to get your seeds from somewhere when you started. Yes.
But, now you save your own seeds. Of course, yes.
Of course. So, was it Italy? Can I ask you that?
No, no. The seed came over to Montana from a serviceman stationed in Portugal, who got
a sample of seeds from a fellow he met in the bar who said he'd been to Egypt
and took it out of a tomb, so that was the original story. It became King Tut's Wheat.
When I went to Egypt, I found that wasn't really true. It was a great story, though.
It was a great story for about 10 years.
We repeated and repeated it, and then I went to verify it, and then the
grain I saw was einkorn at least, from the tombs of Egypt. So, anyway we
think it originated in Mesopotamia. It was probably brought in by the invading
armies of Rome and Greece to Egypt. Einkhorn?
No, no. Einkhorn was there 4000
years ago at the time of the Pharaohs, but this was probably brought in by
invading armies of either Greece or Rome. Wow. And it's been there at least 2,000 years
ago. They call it Balady Durum, which means the native Durum of Egypt, but
there's no such thing as native Durum of Egypt. It all comes,
it came from somewhere else. But when I went to Turkey, the Turkish folks, friends
of mine, were talking to me and they said, "Oh, we know this, we call it
camels tooth, because the way it's shaped. It's quite large, with a hump in it, and a
little bigger than the other shape like a tooth, or they said we call it the Prophet's
Wheat. I said well that's interesting why do you call it the Prophet's Wheat, I said,
does it have something to do with Mohammed, because it's pretty Muslim there, and I
didn't want to, you know, offer the wrong answer.
And they said "Oh no, no, not that prophet," they said "you know, the one with the boat."
And I said, "Oh, you mean Noah?"" Oh yeah," they said, "this is the grain Noah brought
with him on the ark." Oh my gosh... And, so my eyes kind of popped out and I said, "Wow that's a
lot better story," That's even a better story, ha, ha. That's what I told them.
Well, who knows. I know. That's how it started.
We'll check out Bob's, Bob, uh, speech. Well, I hope you like it. Ask me all the questions
you want. Okay. That's what I am here for.
Thanks a lot for talking to us. Thank you.
Pleasure to meet you. Likewise. Bye now. Alright.
(ragtime piano finishes)