Farro

As detailed, farro epitomizes the hair-pulling confusion around wheat. As common wheat gained popularity, emmer, einkorn, and spelt fell out of vogue, often being grown as a subsistence crop in areas where common wheat would not take root. One place where these three never lost favor was northern Italy. Italians use the term “farro” as a catchall for einkorn, emmer, or spelt, differentiating them only by their size—piccolo, medio, and grande. I’ve included it as its own section within wheat because farro is often polished, having some or all of the bran removed, which changes how it behaves compared to an unprocessed wheat berry.