According to legend, a United States airman, soon after the end of World War II, discovered kamut grains in an Egyptian tomb, mailed the kernels to a friend, who subsequently passed them on to his father, who just so happened to be a Montana farmer. The farmer planted the kernels, harvested the wheat, and kamut was born again.
Because of governmental policies and the realities of survival, farmers around this same time period were actively switching over to high-yield hybridized wheat, a trend that virtually eliminated ancient grains from the market. And yet, despite these trends, kamut (some sixty years later) has managed to reassert itself into the field and the cupboard.
Two to three times the size of common wheat, kamut is higher in protein, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals, and is reportedly easier to digest than common wheat. Because kamut is naturally sweet, less sugar is needed when it is used in cereals, breads, and other baked goods, as there is no need to mask the bitter flavor that is common to most other wheat products. While the tale of kernels discovered in a tomb may not be true, the fact remains that nutritionally speaking, kamut is truly a grain befitting of kings.
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