Sonora Wheat is one of the oldest surviving wheat varieties anywhere in North America. Predating the introductions of Red Fife and Turkish Red wheat
Sonora is a common wheat (Triticum aestivum ssp aestivum). In New Mexico it has been continuously grown by Native Americans since its introduction, and is known as “White Sonora wheat”. Sonora was grown in California continuously until about 1960, and was revived again from USDA seed stock from Durango in Mexico, beginning in the 1990s. Sonora wheat might be the very first wheat successfully introduced onto the American continent soon after Columbus’s journey in 1492. The agricultural Native Americans in Mexico used it to make whole wheat tortillas, and apparently liked the way it could be ground to a whole wheat flour on their metate. It is an awnless spring wheat and has pale yellow (white) seed color. The bronze colored glumes are covered with fine hairs, giving them a velvety appearance. The quality of starch, together with a very low tendency for the dough to darken on standing, contribute to its specific usefulness in Asian-style noodles and pasta, short pastry and flour tortillas. It produces a very light colored whole wheat flour with mild flavor that makes it ideal for many kinds of baked goods: pizza and pocket bread, cookies, cakes and pies, as well as hot breakfast cereals. The Sonora wheat dough, and final bread texture, is refreshingly different from that of hard red wheat cultivars. A pleasing open bread cell structure is achievable, especially when the grain protein is 12% or more, but with a shortness of crust that is welcomed. Asian-style noodles and Italian-style pasta, as well as Mexican flour tortillas and Indian rotis, are successful products that are made from whole wheat flour from Sonora.
The Sonora grains are small but dense and have a thin, smooth glossy bran