One of the primary things that makes our hard white wheat so great has to do with where it's grown. It's the locality. This year is a perfect example. We had a wet spring and now that we are into the middle of the summer, it has gotten too dry. These are the perfect conditions to make really high quality wheat. Another very important thing about this locality is we have hot days and cold nights. This creates high gluten in the wheat. When it dries out early, disease has a harder time surviving.

I (the web page author) was talking with two of my sisters who are both avid bread makers. They had some interesting comments about hard white wheat. Dorothy: My family has a hard time eating the hard red wheat bread as compared to the hard white wheat bread. The bread made from the Golden 86 is so much more fluffy. The bread made from the hard red wheat is dense and heavy. The flavor of the hard white wheat is a bit milder in taste. Several years ago one of my little brothers was bragging around our mother that his bread better than hers. Mother had been making whole wheat bread for 40 years and felt she had it down pat. So they made a little wager and started baking. My brother, who had only been making bread for a year or two had a secret weapon - hard white wheat. He won, hands down. Heidi: I especially like the hard white wheat because it doesn't taste like bread made from wheat. It tastes like the baker cheated and made the bread from half white flour.

These dry conditions reduce the yield and reduce our income, but the pay-off for the customer is great in the higher quality of wheat which is produced. The period of summer is just right here for growing wheat. Other places - take Montpelier, Idaho, for example, with it's higher elevations, often gets early and late frosts which can damage the crop. In Montpelier, they can keep away from disease as well because of the cool weather, but because of the early and late frosts it's not the ideal place to grow premium wheat. The valley the Rahn Rain Farm lies in is a tuff place to grow anything. And so, what does grow is a hardy plant. Because it's such a hard place to grow things, we don't have a lot of problems with foreign weeds like in other parts of the country that get more moisture. When we have a wet year we see weeds that we've never seen before.

As far as Dennis knows there are only two major producers of Hard White Wheat - his farm and a close neighbor just to the north of him. They call their hard white wheat "Prairie Gold." But it is all the same wheat and came from the same source.

This bears a bit of explaining. Back in the mid-1980s, two plant breeders by the names of Wally Johnson and Leroy Musick of Lewiston, Montana developed the seed. Then they let it out to several farmers to grow. What became of all these lots is not known for sure. One lot was given out to Ron Bos, a wheat grower in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, who ended up stuck with it because the plant breeders couldn't raise the finances to pay for it. Dennis bought approximately 400 bushels of this wheat from Ron Bos. His neighbor who also grows hard white wheat also got his wheat from Ron Bos, the same wheat.

In the Spring of 1989, Dennis planted his first Golden 86 Hard White Wheat. Walton Feed, Inc. bought all of Dennis Rahn's wheat in the Fall of 1989 and has every year since then. And since that time, Dennis has been Walton Feed's only supplier of hard white wheat.

Nutritionally speaking, hard white wheat and hard red wheat have about the same values. But there are some major differences as to what kind of bread you can make from it. Hard white wheat has several advantages over hard red wheat. The wheat kernel's germ and bran seem to be thinner on hard white wheat than it is on hard red wheat. The finished bread made from hard white wheat definitely has a lighter color than that made from hard red wheat. Also, the endosperm, or the part of the wheat that's left when white flour is made, seems to have a higher gluten and better mixing consistency than the hard red wheat. This makes bread that produces lighter, more full loaves without having to sneak in any white flour, gluten or other baker helps.

Bread made from hard white wheat actually seems like it's got white flour added. The bread doesn't get as heavy. When bread is made with hard red wheat it's often necessary to add white flour to it or it will be really heavy. With bread made from hard white wheat, great bread can be made without using any extra flour. The hard white wheat has more gluten than the hard red wheat.

Bread made from hard white wheat is a little sweeter because the wheat itself is sweeter. Hard red wheat has a slightly bitter taste compared to the hard white wheat. Another thing you will notice from chewing on hard white wheat is it will turn into a gum much more quickly than chewing on hard red wheat. This is a very rough test you can use to determine gluten content. Any baker wants this fast mix for bringing out the gluten properties quickly in a bread flour.