ANCIENT WHEAT VARIETES
A’ Tumminìa – Timilìa
Timilìa (Tummnìa) is an old variety of Sicilian durum wheat, characterized by a small, dark-color seed. It’s a short
cycle variety that is sown in springtime and, because of such features and for its adaptability to limited water supply, it has historically been considered a sort of “spare wheat” by our ancestors. When difficulties of various sorts prevented farmers from properly sowing wheat in the Fall, they resorted to a springtime sowing of Timilìa in order to harvest a crop anyway.
Today, Timilìa is being reconsidered also because of the peculiar taste of its flour: a darker color and a stronger taste (with sweetish scents) make it a perfect ingredient both for bread making and for whole-wheat cookies and other bakery/ pastry products.
A’ Russulìdda – Russello
Russello (Russulìdda) is an ancient Sicilian durum wheat variety, marked by a yellow-reddish ear at time of ripeness,
set at the top of a rather long stem (up to 180 cm.). Starting in the 1950s, it became the main variety grown in our farms,
overtaking other varieties because of its greater hardiness, higher straw yield (particularly valued by livestock farms),
and especially for its flour quality, perfect both for bread making and pasta production.
After decades of neglect, due to the massive increase in the adoption of modified varieties (selected for the lower size
that makes mechanical harvesting easier, but with a more aggressive and less digestible gluten), today it is being rediscovered for its nutritional value as well as for the taste of the flour obtained from its milling.
Sowing takes place in late autumn or early winter, between the end of December and the first ten days of January, while
the crop is harvested during the first ten days of July.
A’ Maiorca
Maiorca is an ancient variety of Sicilian soft wheat that has been cultivated by our family at Sparacia for four generations. It has a quadrangular spike without awns and a roundish yellow-whitish grain. From its milling we get a white and soft flour, traditionally used for pastry-making, but it is excellent for bread as well. And its scent … is that of grandma’s sweets!
Sowing takes place in autumn-winter, between the end of November and mid-December, while the harvest generally
takes place in the first ten days of July.
