Winter 2023
Small Grains
Fall 2023
Oats
New life for an old hearty and healthy food » More ...
Fall 2023
Oats then and now: Q&A with an expert
Louisa R. (Winkler) Brouwer (’17 PhD Crop Sci.) was one of three researchers at Washington State University who collaborated on “The History of Oats in Western Washington and the Evolution of Regionality in Agriculture.”
The 2016 study—written by Brouwer along with crop scientists Stephen S. Jones, director of the WSU Breadlab, and Kevin M. Murphy (’04 MS, ’07 PhD Crop Sci.)—appeared in the Journal of Rural Studies.
It was a precursor to her dissertation: “Building the Genetic, Agronomic and Economic Foundations for Expansion of Oat Cultivation in Western Washington.”
Recently, she discussed her work and oats with Washington State Magazine.
… » More …
Fall 2023
Oat recipes
From gruel to oatmeal cookies, here’s a roundup of historical and contemporary recipes spotlighting oats. What’s your favorite way to prepare this healthful grain?
Read more about oats in the Fall 2023 issue’s In Season.
Historical oats
First, light a fire. Here are some ways to prepare oats from the mid-eighteenth to early twentieth centuries. The first half-dozen recipes come from the 1747 Hannah Glasse cookbook: The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, which far exceeds anything of the kind ever yet published.
To Make Plum Gruel
Take two quarts of water, two large spoonfuls of oatmeal, sir it … » More …
Summer 2021
Buoy, what a life
A World War II relic becomes an oven at the Washington State University Bread Lab. » More ...
Fall 2020
Renaissance of an ancient grain
Chefs looking for new flavors are discovering spelt, including new varieties developed at Washington State University. » More ...
Spring 2019
Giving rust a rest
Ubiquitous in wheat-growing regions, stripe rust spores can ride the wind for miles upon miles and, when conditions are right, it grows quickly, sucking water and nutrients out of the leaves and crippling wheat’s ability to produce healthy seeds. Washington State University wheat breeders research and develop new wheat varieties resistant to rust. » More ...
Fall 2018
Modernist Bread
By Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya
The Cooking Lab: 2017
For millennia, bread baking has been more craft than science. Even the current trend in artisan bread rejects much of what modern science has wrought: the advances of manufactured yeast, dough conditioners, added preservatives and the overall industrialization of wheat and bread production.
“The bread zeitgeist is about being ancient, primitive, natural, and pretty much anything but modern,” writes Nathan Myhrvold in his recent 2,642-page … » More …
Spring 2016
Green for all seasons
The quirks of Pullman weather can make gardening tough. It was only a few years ago that it snowed in June. But in the greenhouses scattered around campus, researchers and students can keep growing and studying plants in adverse weather. Even visitors to campus can enjoy vegetables, holiday poinsettias, and flowers long before they’ll thrive on the Palouse.
The latest addition to the greenhouses on campus, a two-story building that resembles a glass apartment complex with glowing sodium lights, sits behind the Lewis Alumni Centre. The research facility allows scientists to raise up to three generations of wheat, barley, and other grains every year, says … » More …
Winter 2015
Ancients among us
Safeguarding our future
The arid soil on the mile-high Hopi Mesa trickles through clenched fingers like sand. If you visit this isolated corner of northeastern Arizona, you might find it hard to believe it is home to one of the oldest civilizations in the Americas.
For more than 2,000 years, the Hopi and their ancestors have carved a living out of the rough terrain. They survived drought, famine, war, and a fluctuating climate that drove many of their ancient southwestern neighbors elsewhere in search of more fertile lands.
One key to the Hopi’s longevity is a variety of drought-tolerant corn they have adapted over the … » More …