Wheat Treat: Threshing...Shredding - Introduction

Plenty to go around: At least we'd like to think so. We, around where we reside, seem to live in a land 'aplenty, that's for sure. As in plenty of food, "foodstuffs" -- stuff that's edible. A staple of which is, of course, wheat. Wheat which in turn is used in a whole lot of products, many of which we consume at least daily (as in 'whole wheat'), if not several times throughout a day in variety of forms. In our pantries, our cupboards. We consume it and have come to assume it, as in take it for granted. We come to the table, expectantly, not always appreciating all the hands and steps it took to get there. Probably not as much after what we have been experiencing as of late. Following all the supply chain issues we experienced during the pandemic (not quite over, still some interruptions, shortages, from time to time). But now, since February 22nd, we started first hearing about trouble on 'their end' and eventually, over the past few weeks, started seeing it on 'our end'...

Farm to Table, Tabled: As the harvesting of wheat became more of a challenge in Ukraine, one of the main growers, producers, exporters of wheat. This, due to their neighbors from Russia, who also export wheat, suddenly exporting military aggression in one direction. Which in turn eventuated in a huge export of Ukrainian citizens, thousands at first, then hundreds of thousands, disproportionately women and children. Those left behind became preoccupied with survival as well as fortifying their cities, assisting their overmatched military with defending their homeland, their soil. So, they can be forgiven if they went from becoming tillers of soil to defending and spilling their lifeblood on the very soil, that for thousands of years, has filled millions of breadbaskets throughout the rest of the world. Which another nation is attempting to desecrate. This is the first of at least a few posts dedicated to those who look after the soil, grow, harvest, and then treat us all to wheat, among other staples. Without which our lives become harder, far less enriched. But a hardship that pales in comparison with what the farmers and other citizens of Ukraine have already endured this year.