Red Fife (Triticum aestivum)

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

is a Canadian landrace descendent of Western Ukrainian (Galicia) wheat; it’s old local Galician name being “Halychanka”. It is a hard, bread wheat with straws of 0.9 to 1.5 metres tall. From the mid-1800s until the early 1900s, Red Fife was the dominant variety of wheat grown in Canada and the northern United States; prized for its hardiness, rust resistance, yield, and milling & baking qualities. Red Fife was first grown in 1842 by David Fife, a farmer in Otonabee Township in

Peterborough County Peterborough County is located in Southern Ontario, Canada. The county seat is Peterborough, which is independent of the county. The southern section of the county is mix of agriculture, urban and lakefront properties. The northern section of th ...

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of th ...

, who had been sent Halychanka seed by a friend in Scotland. Red Fife is named “red” for its colour when fully ripe and “Fife” after David Fife; however, American farmers may know this wheat as Canadian Fife, Fife, Saskatchewan Fife, or Scotch Fife. Little is known about the development of Red Fife between 1842 and 1860; but, after that date Red Fife featured prominently in agricultural publications as farmers recommended this new variety of wheat to their peers. In Canada, by 1876, Red Fife was displacing other varieties of wheat (including Siberian and White Russian) that farmers were only having limited-success growing. In the United States, Red Fife was grown in northern states. Red Fife was widely grown until it was replaced by

Marquis wheat The Marquis bread wheat cultivar was developed by Dominion Agriculturalist Charles Saunders in 1904. It is a cross between Red Fife (male parent) and Hard Red Calcutta (female parent). It was selected for superiority in milling quality for bread ...

in the early 1900s; Marquis being a hybrid for which Red Fife is the male parent. In 1988, cultivation of Red Fife was revived by The Heritage Wheat Project (HWP). Over 450 metric tons of Red Fife was harvested in Canada in 2007.

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References

* {{Wheat Wheat cultivars