Miller's Choice

A population of long straw wheats created by Andy Forbes of the Brockwell Bake Association in 2010 from a narrow selection, 2 to 3% from within John Letts' broad spectrum genetically diverse winter wheat population. This selection was based on eliminating Squarehead type ear morphology (square cross section with relatively compact spikelets) in favour of the long and lax ear shape of Lammas types. The purpose of the selection was to reduce the proportion of the "Squarehead" or "Prolific" generation of high yield low milling quality wheats that dominated British Isles wheat cultivation between the beginning of the 19th C till the early 20th C in favour of the preceding good milling landrace wheats relied on for British wheat bread baking up until the mid-19th C. For more information please read this essay.

To the above selection was then added a 20% of Spanish long straw accessions to provide additional drought tolerance.

Subsequently the seed stock has been run through a Satake RGB colour sorter in 2016 to emphasise red as opposed to white wheats in the population to further emphasise flavour, functionality and disease resistance.

"Miller's Choice" "red" population is now in full scale cultivation and professional bakery use and is showing well in comparison with other "heritage" wheats both for flavour and functionality as well as in agronomy trials such as at the National Organic Combinable Crops event 2018.