If you’ve ever been on a safari, you know how exciting it can be. A wheat safari may not be as exciting, but it’s extremely educational. This summer the Wheat Foods Council (WFC) invited 25 of the nation’s top nutrition bloggers, supermarket registered dietitians and freelance food writers to participate in harvesting wheat, eating lunch on a farm, making pretzels at the American Institute of Baking (AIB) International, Manhattan, Kan., and touring a mill and a bakery. Attendees observed wheat from “farm to fork.”
WFC couldn’t have done this without the help of Kansas farmers; the Home Baking Association; AIB; Kansas State University’s demonstration mill; the Farm to Market Bread Co., Kansas City, Mo.; and the Kansas Wheat Commission, Manhattan. Noted carbohydrate expert and nutrition educator Dr. Julie Miller Jones accompanied the safari and answered questions about gluten, the glycemic index, labeling whole grains and numerous other topics.