When I was 10 years old my father told me the grain joke. Do you know it? This extra-terrestrial reports on her travels through space. She has studied the earth. ‘‘An interesting planet’’, she says, ‘‘it is inhabited by grasses of various sizes. Some live in shallow water and others on dry land. They all have two legged creatures working for them. These creatures eliminate other plants so that the grasses may grow without being disturbed too much. They also keep hungry beasts away. At the end of a season, the creatures carefully assemble the grains of the grasses, so as to sow them again on the next possible occasion and set a new cycle in motion. The creatures keep a few grains for themselves to feed on, but overall they expand the grasses’ living space a bit more every year. It is very impressive’’.

Mol, Annemarie. 2008. I Eat an Apple. On Theorizing Subjectivities. Subjectivity 22 (1): 28–37. doi:10.1057/sub.2008.2

Being gluten free is the equivalent of having a circadian rhythm sleep disorder; it’s manageable, but the rest of the world is built around wheat (and waking up early).

The wheat yearned to be bred but we misunderstood.

I’m presently reading a book called the Botany of Desire which discusses the relationships between plants and humans and perhaps who evolved for whom. Pretty interesting read so far.

Isaac Asimov wrote a story about this called “Each an Explorer” (1956)

Probably by rice, or koji. Or yeast!