Norann Oleson, Editorial Director of Food Gardening Network

Welcome to the world of wheat, the most popular crop in the world!

The grain that’s loved the world over is one of the oldest crops grown. Wheat can be found in home gardens, raised beds, and containers. If you’d like to join the next new crop of wheat gardeners, now’s the time to dig in!

First is the collection’s Introduction, where you’ll learn some of the basics about wheat and how to choose the right variety to grow. You’ll also get the history of this cereal grain!

Next, in the Feature Articles, you’ll get specifics about wheat gardening—from the two types and six classifications of wheat plants to planting seeds, watering, fertilizing, and harvesting your plants to reap your delicious reward.

There’s a lot to know about wheat gardening, so even if you’re a veteran, you might learn something new. We aim to gather everything there is to know about wheat gardening into this single collection!

We’ve got nine fun Plant Profiles with the more popular varieties listed, including options for gardeners around the country and those who want to grow wheat in containers.

While there are more than 25,000 varieties of wheat, we’ve chosen these nine wheat plant profiles because these are some of the most commonly grown by home gardeners. If you’d like us to include another wheat variety that appeals to you, please let me know by commenting below.

After all, this is Food Gardening Network, and we want to include the knowledge of all our gardening readers in everything we do. Your input is just as important to us as anything we come up with on our own!

We do think you’ll love the wheat Recipes we’ve compiled for enjoying the fruits of your labor. They cover all the traditional uses of wheat—with a couple of twists—plus some new ideas you might not have heard of before.

You can make bread, of course, plus pasta, biscuits, muffins, and crackers. We also have an apple crisp topping that’s healthy and delicious. And they’ll all taste even better because you’ll know that you grew the wheat yourself instead of buying less interesting flour at the supermarket. Everyone will appreciate your hard work when you serve these dishes!

Though the gluten in wheat affects some people who are sensitive to it, if you can tolerate it, you’ll be interested to learn how all this wheat is improving your health in Nutrition Facts about Wheat. You probably know that whole wheat contains nutritious fiber and protein, but you may be surprised to learn about all the nutrients that this delicious cereal grain provides.

Then there are the Home Remedies & Health Benefits of Wheat where you’ll learn how whole grain wheat is thought to help improve gut health and prevent colon cancer. You’ll even discover how you can use wheat flour directly on your skin to enhance your complexion and other beauty tips! There’s more to wheat than just sliced bread!

Because we want you to have everything there is to know about wheat at your fingertips, we’ve included a Resources section that’s complementary to this collection. You can take a deeper dive into wheat growing like the pros and even buying wheat seed when you check out these additional resources.

As always, we’ve included a brief Glossary in case you need a more in-depth explanation of any key terms. Be sure to let us know if there’s something else you need explained!

I can tell by the aroma in my kitchen that my home-grown, homemade loaf of bread is ready to come out of the oven, so I’ll leave you to dive into this collection and become a master wheat gardener!