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Reports & Newsletters Newsletters from 2000 until 2004 give an account of our progres in
engaging farmers who wanted to grow organically, locally appropriate old-fashioned wheat varieties. Topics covered include
whole wheat nutrition, small scale handling of wheat seed and a simplified wheat botany. In most
newsletters, the table of contents summarizes the topics covered. Also
in 2004-2005, Gene Spiller Ph.D was writing the book, What's With Fiber?, with Monica Spiller as his co-author. Very
sad indeed am I to report that my husband Gene passed away in 2006, following a car accident. Gene was 79, and had contributed
greatly to our knowledge of dietary fiber, since beginning his fiber research in the early 1970s. The good thing is that he
wrote popular books on nutrition, as well as numerous technical works. He delighted in bringing together others interested
in dietary fiber, so his books are rich in the spectrum of observations on nutrition generally. Because he loved food, after
all he was an Italian-born American, he gave us insight into whole foods as much as insight into the content of foods, in
appreciation of the fact that all the components interplay to give pleasure and healthfulness, or not, as the case may be.
By 2006 our wheat experimentation had been assisted by Lee Jackson Ph.D, UC Davis; we were
able to select 12 varieties of landrace wheat that seemed to be reasonably resistant to the prevalent fungal diseases, and
gave reasonable yields. Because we aim to grow wheat without irrigation, we do not expect the high yields experienced by conventional
growers who usually irrigate and also use a high input of nitrogenous fertilizers. Our progress and news from about 2006 until now
in 2011, is represented in our Catalog, the Landrace Position Paper 2008, and most recently in meetings
with farmers such as the September 18, 2010 meeting reported below.
Click on the links below to read or print out newsletters and reports
Happenings at the Whole Grain Connection Farmers meeting September 18, 2010
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