Rye - a complete overview of all the properties of a useful cereal and applications. Conversation for children of the senior - preparatory group in kindergarten: Bread is the head of everything

Rye can be called a native Russian cereal. This cereal is a dietary product; many healthy and tasty dishes are prepared from it, for example, rye bread, flat cakes, kvass and cereals.

Composition of rye

Rye is a close relative of wheat, but much healthier than the latter. Its protein contains more amino acids valuable for the body, and grains contain less gluten. Rye flour has 5 times more fructose than wheat flour. And products made from it are rich in hemicellulose and fiber, which improve the microflora, increase intestinal motility and strengthen the immune system. The composition of rye includes vitamin A, which prevents premature aging and preserves the integrity of the cellular structure, vitamins PP and E, no less important for the body, as well as B vitamins. The cereal is also rich in trace elements: phosphorus, sodium, magnesium, potassium, calcium and.

What is useful rye

Rye grains are an antioxidant, they have anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic effects. Products made from them strengthen the body, improve the function of hematopoiesis and have a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system. Regular consumption of rye will prevent cancer of the lungs, stomach, breast and throat. It will be useful for people suffering from chronic constipation and colitis.

The benefits of rye lies in the ability to cleanse the body and help in the treatment of colds, allergies and bronchial asthma. It contributes to the treatment of diseases of the stomach, kidneys and liver, well and wounds, and also helps with eczema. Rye improves the functioning of the lymphatic system, improves metabolic processes, relieves nervous tension and depression. The substances contained in it stimulate the production of hormones and the work of the adrenal glands.

The beneficial properties of rye are used to restore the body after operations and serious illnesses. Rye bread, cereals and cakes are recommended for use in diseases of the thyroid gland and to improve the functioning of the heart. It has a good effect on the condition of the gums and teeth, normalizes the content of cholesterol in the body, strengthens muscle tissue and improves brain function. A decoction of rye bran helps with anemia, pulmonary tuberculosis, diarrhea, atherosclerosis and hypertension. And thanks to the softening and expectorant action, it copes well with dry cough.

Rye is a cereal, cereal plant Secale cereale from the cereal family. Other names are rye, rye, rye, rye, winter, winter. There is also spring rye, yaritsa rye, American rye, Assyrian rye, Egyptian rye.

Rye is a very aggressive crop: it does not let anyone into the area it occupies, only blue-eyed cornflowers take advantage of its location.

Rye is a sister of wheat, but much more useful than it. Rye contains more essential amino acids (compared to wheat), which is very important for humans, especially for diabetics. Rye flour contains 5 times more fructose than wheat flour, which is necessary for the normal functioning of the body. Products made from rye flour contain a sufficient amount of fiber and hemicellulose, which play a certain role in human nutrition - they increase intestinal motility, promote the growth of beneficial microflora and strengthen the immune system.

The benefits of rye and rye bread

With the onset of winter, when the human body begins to lack vitamins, bakers are advised to include traditional rye bread in the diet. According to surveys, rye bread has become less common on our menu. Meanwhile, it is worth recalling the benefits of rye bread, which since ancient times was considered a product that increases health. It contains many useful substances necessary for a person: amino acids, mineral salts, vitamins of groups B, PP, E, iron, micro and macro elements, fiber.

Rye seedlings are the embodiment of the strength and power of nature, the will to live. They carry energy, nutrition, healing, healing. Rye sprouts are a source of high quality vegetable proteins and a wide range of vitamins and antioxidants. They are an excellent source of B vitamins, folic acid, and many macro and micronutrients.

Rye bran and the green mass of the plant itself are useful for diabetes and thyroid dysfunction. A decoction of bran helps with pulmonary tuberculosis.

Eating rye bread helps lower blood cholesterol, improves metabolism, heart function, removes toxins, and helps prevent dozens of diseases, including cancer. In addition, rye bread has a lower energy value, so you don't have to worry about your figure.

The consumption rate of rye flour (as a percentage of all cereals) is about 30. Rye flour has numerous beneficial properties. It contains the amino acid necessary for our body - lysine, fiber, manganese, zinc, 30% more iron than wheat flour, 1.5-2 times more magnesium and potassium. Rye bread is baked without yeast and on thick sourdough.

In Germany and Poland, rye bread is considered a dietary product. It is useful for people suffering from anemia and diabetes. But because of the high acidity (7-12 degrees), which protects against the occurrence of mold and destructive processes, rye bread is not recommended for people with high acidity of the intestines, suffering from peptic ulcers. The 100% rye bread is really too heavy for daily consumption. The best option is 80-85% rye and 15-25% wheat. Varieties of rye bread: from white flour, from peeled flour, rich, simple, custard, Moscow and others.

Rye bread is also useful because it contains a lot of fibrous substances. Dietary fiber is the "wipers of the body", which promote digestion and have a beneficial effect on the condition of the teeth and gums.

The fiber content of rye bread makes you feel full, although it is low in calories. The daily norm of dietary fiber for a person is about 20-30 grams. This amount can be obtained from 6-8 slices of rye bread. The same amount of rye bread covers the human need for minerals by 60-80% and the daily human need for vitamins by 30-50%.

Rye bread is a friend of our hearts, as it helps to balance the cholesterol content in the body, thus reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Minerals contained in rye bread stimulate brain activity and strengthen muscles.

Rye in Russia

Rye is a native Russian cereal, the historical basis of the Russian diet. “Rye-mother, rye-nurse” - so the ancestors said. From time immemorial, Russian people have eaten rye bread, which was both to their taste and affordable. At the beginning of the 20th century, the consumption of products made from rye flour was more than sixty percent. To date, this figure is much lower - about 10-13%. But until now, Russia is one of the five largest producers of rye. Buyers of Russian rye are Bulgaria, Germany, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Finland, Estonia. In Ukraine, rye bread is gradually becoming an elite product, while Belarus sells only rye flour (a higher value-added product).

Compared to wheat, rye is more resistant to frost and drought, it is less susceptible to disease and is not afraid of pests. Accordingly, rye always gives more stable yields. In addition, rye protein contains significantly more essential amino acids for the human body than wheat protein. There is much less gluten (gluten) in rye grains than in the “queen of the fields”.

Wholemeal (unrefined) rye flour is the number one dietary product for a Russian person, given that historically Russia is a “rye power”, and our main cereal, to which our body is most genetically adapted, is, of course, rye. The luminary of medical science A. I. Kuptsov wrote: “The monotonous diet of black rye bread for the Russian poor has never led to beriberi, and this indicates that rye bread belongs to the category of food that best meets the needs of the human body.”

Rye allowed the Russians to create a unique culture of their own sweets (which every advanced civilization needs) based on pies, pancakes and gingerbread. In the manufacture of the latter, rye was absolutely indispensable and, of course, without rye it was impossible to imagine the preparation of the main Russian non-alcoholic drink - kvass, which "was needed like air."

It is as if nature itself gave the man of the northern latitudes such a culture that, through a piece of rye bread, provides the human body with everything necessary for normal life support. At one time, the areas of winter rye in Russia reached 28 million hectares, Russia was considered the "rye kingdom". Despite the fact that rye was gradually replaced by wheat in the first half of the 20th century (Stalin, as a southerner, did not understand the great importance of this cereal for Russia), it remains the most valuable grain crop that has many healing properties for the human body.

Dietary properties of rye and its use

Rye grain is widely used for the production of bread, kvass, animal feed, alcohol, rye malt and other products.

In the old days in Rus' it was believed that a grain of rye increases vitality, improves health and improves mood. Modern science has proven that rye really has general strengthening properties and normalizes metabolism.

Due to its mild laxative effect, rye bread is useful in cases of constipation. Scientists believe that the use of rye bread is of some importance for the prevention of heart disease.

Rye flour contains linoleic and other fatty acids necessary for cardiac activity.

In folk medicine, flowers and ears of rye were used to prepare infusions and decoctions used for respiratory diseases.

A decoction of rye bran is drunk as an expectorant and emollient for chronic tracheitis and bronchitis.

Rye bread, soaked in hot milk, applied to abscesses, accelerates their maturation. Emollient poultices are made from warm rye dough.

Proverbs and sayings about rye

On the butt, rye threshes, grains will not drop
Mother rye feeds all fools completely, and wheat is optional
Rye says: sow me into the ashes, but at the right time; oats says: trample me in the mud, so I will be a prince
Rye loves: at least for an hour, yes, in the sand (yes, in the ashes), and oats - even in the water, but at the right time
Rye - even in the ashes, but just right, and if the oats are in the mud, so is the prince
This rye into ashes, and wheat into water (just right)
I do not bow to the rich: I milk my rye
He is good, who gave birth to rye
Do not worry about rye: just keep a bag
When rye, then measure
If the blueberry ripens, then the rye also ripens.
The field is red with rye, and speech is a lie
We see the trouble that there is a quinoa in the rye
It doesn’t matter that there is a quinoa in the rye, otherwise it’s trouble, no matter how rye or quinoa
A lot of rye, but everything is quinoa
Bad years, if there is quinoa in the rye
They sowed rye, and we mowed quinoa

Russian writers about rye

Today the rye is good. The hare ran along the rustles. Yesterday, a runaway soldier in ryes was spotted. (M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin)

At first it was pleasant to drive: a warm, dull day, a well-trodden road, a lot of flowers and larks in the fields; from the loaves, from the low gray rye, which stretched as far as the eye could see, a sweet breeze blew, carried flower dust along their jambs, in places it smoked with it, and far from it it was even foggy. (I. A. Bunin, "Grammar of Love", 1915) Rye adapts to any conditions and gives a good harvest, both in Siberia and in Colombia, where it is 45 degrees in the shade.

Mikhail Zabylin in the book “Russian people. Book 1. Holidays, rituals and customs in Rus'” notes that “Russians ate mainly rye bread, not excluding rich and powerful persons. Sometimes barley flour was mixed with rye flour, but this was not a permanent rule, since barley was little bred in Russia. Wheat flour was used for prosphora and rolls, which were a delicacy for the common people on holidays.

In the 1970s, Luxembourg was one of the world leaders in bowel oncology. With the beginning of eating rye bread and bran, according to this indicator, he was at the end of the list.

Rye is "friends" with lactic acid bacteria. Rye bread only on rye flour without the addition of wheat flour can only be prepared on sour milk sourdough.

Our ancestors said that rye makes the stomach work. And they prepared products from both fermented and unleavened rye dough. Both are tasty and healthy.

Based on materials from open sources.

A little more about rye and its uses.

Rye is a genus of annual or perennial herbaceous plants of the flowering department, monocotyledonous class, cereal order, grass family (bluegrass) (lat. Secale).

• You can distinguish these crops from each other already at the stage of small sprouts: if you pull out a small rye plant and look at its roots, you will find a root divided into four parts, a root, but in wheat, the root is divided into three primary roots.
• The color of the leaves of rye and wheat also differs - rye usually has bluish-gray leaves, while in wheat they are bright green, however, this feature is observed only before the ears ripen.
• Ears of rye and wheat also have differences in structure: in rye, the inflorescence is represented by a two-row spike, the wheat inflorescence is a complex spike.
• Wheat flowers are self-pollinating, while rye is wind-pollinated.
• Wheat was cultivated by man much earlier than rye.
• If we consider these cereals in terms of species diversity, then wheat has the largest number of species and varietal affiliations among the currently known cereals. Rye cannot boast of such a number of species.
• In rye grain, in addition to standard carbohydrates, proteins and various dietary fibers that are also present in wheat grain, there is also a set of vitamins of the PP, E, B groups. That is why rye bread is considered a very useful dietary product.
• Rye is less picky about the quality of the soil, so its fibrous roots penetrate 2 meters deep, receiving the substances necessary for growth. This feature makes it possible to sow rye on sandy, "acidic" or infertile soils, obtaining consistently high yields. Wheat is more "capricious" and demanding on the quality of the soil.
• Rye crops are resistant to frost and severe droughts, and wheat often freezes out at low temperatures and loves moderate moisture.

A hybrid of wheat and rye is called triticale:

Hybrid of wheat and rye (triticale)

Grains: rye, wheat, barley, oats, triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye)

Rye and barley: differences.

• Barley sprout has 5-8 primary roots, rye has 4.
• A leaf of cereals at its base has bilateral horns or, as they are called differently, ears. In rye, they are short, devoid of cilia hairs. Barley ears are very large, have the shape of a crescent.
• At the rye ear, on each ledge of the rod, there are two flowers; on the rod ledges of barley, three graceful flowers “sit”.
• Spikelet scales of rye are narrow, with a pronounced single nerve-groove. Barley scales are slightly wider, linear, without a visible groove.

Types of rye, names and photos.

The modern classification distinguishes 9 types of rye:

1. Mountain rye (Secale montanum)
2. Wild (forest) rye (Secale sylvestre)
3. Vavilov's rye (Secale vavilovii)
4. Derzhavin's rye (Secale derzhavinii)
5. Anatolian rye (Secale anatolicum)
6. African rye (Secale africanum)
7. Rye (cultivated) (Secale cereale)
8. Rye Secale ciliatiglume
9. Weed field rye (Secale segetale)

A more detailed description of the varieties of rye:

• mountain rye(lat. Secale montanum) - a perennial plant 80-120 cm high. The species of rye, listed in the Red Book, is distributed by small populations in Abkhazia, the Caucasus and the Krasnodar Territory, as well as in southern Europe and in the countries of South-Western and Central Asia.

• Wild (forest) rye(lat. Secale sylvestre) is an annual cereal that grows in European countries, Asia Minor and Central Asia, the Caucasus and western Siberia.

• Rye Vavilov(lat. Secale vavilovii) is an annual plant that grows in Iran, Turkey, Armenia, Iraq, Iran, and the Caucasus.
• Rye Derzhavin(lat. Secale derzhavinii) is a perennial fodder crop created by Professor Derzhavin by crossing seed and mountain rye.
• Anatolian rye(lat. Secale anatolicum) is a perennial fodder grass common in the foothill regions of Transcaucasia, the Balkans, Greece, Bulgaria, Iraq, Iran and in the central part of Turkey (Anatolia). Used for grazing livestock and making hay.
• African rye(lat. Secale africanum) - a type of rye that grows in the south of the African continent.
• sowing rye or cultural(lat. Secale cereale) - an annual or two-year-old cereal, cultivated in the winter or spring way. A widespread culture of high food, agricultural and fodder purposes, uniting about 40 varieties. Cultivated in temperate latitudes in Russia, Germany, Poland, Scandinavian countries, Belarus, Ukraine, Canada, America and China.

• Rye Secale ciliatiglume- a type of rye that grows in Turkey, Iraq, Iran.
• Weed field rye(Secale segetale) - this species grows in the countries of Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and the Caucasus.

Rye: benefits, medicinal properties, vitamins and minerals.

Rye is one of the most useful cereal plants, a unique dietary product, a storehouse of vitamins and minerals that are indispensable for the human body. The composition of rye grains includes:

• B vitamins involved in basic metabolic processes, preventing aging, supporting immunity;
• vitamins A and PP, which protect the body from aging and maintain the integrity of the cell structure;
• folic acid, which has a general strengthening effect on the body and supports the work of the heart and blood vessels;
• sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus;
• lysine and threonine, amino acids important for tissue growth and repair;
• germinated rye grains contain zinc, selenium, iron and manganese.

The use of rye products, decoctions and preparations containing rye can successfully fight many dangerous diseases:

• oncological diseases;
• arthritis, arthrosis and inflammation of bone tissue;
• cardiovascular diseases;
• diseases of the liver, gallbladder, kidneys and genitourinary system;
• diseases of the pancreas and thyroid gland, including diabetes mellitus;
• allergies, bronchial asthma;
• skin diseases.

The most valuable rye flour is wholemeal (unrefined, with a grain shell), it retains all the beneficial properties of whole grains.

In the field of medicine, infusions and decoctions are prepared from useful cereals, extracts are made from rye grains. This cereal has a general strengthening, tonic effect on the body, stabilizes the functions of the gastrointestinal tract, softens coughs, relieves rheumatoid conditions, heals abscesses and relieves tumors. Rye bran is useful in the treatment of high blood pressure, anemia, diseases of the cardiovascular system.

The ancestor of modern cultivated rye is weed-field rye (Secale segetale) of Southwest Asia (most likely, the northwestern part of Iran, the northeastern part of Turkey and southern Transcaucasia), from time immemorial it has littered local crops of wheat and barley.

Cultivated rye originated from field weeds due to the latter's competition with wheat when they grow together in extreme conditions of the mountain regime. Possibly, weed-field rye, being a weed, accompanied the crops of wheat and, to a lesser extent, barley from the very moment these plants were introduced into cultivation; in any case, the first finds of rye are found only as an admixture in grains of wheat and barley. But historical and archaeological data suggest that rye nevertheless appeared much later than wheat - only in the Bronze Age, which for most countries of Europe, Western Asia and Asia Minor covers 2 thousand BC. e. Findings of grains of rye are also noted on the monuments of the Scythian time (IX-III centuries BC).

The movement of rye from the centers of ancient agriculture to the territory of present-day Russia and Western Europe occurred, according to scientists, through the Caucasus. With the advancement of integrated economy and agriculture as its integral part further north, the advantages of rye as a plant more winter-hardy, more hardy and unpretentious were more and more clearly revealed. Man carried wheat crops to the north, littered with weed-field rye, but wheat fell out in harsh conditions, and rye brought crops. The northern farmer relied on natural selection. Rye, advanced not so much by artificial as by natural selection, exemplifies the origin of a cultivated plant from a companion weed.

Why did rye, accompanying wheat in the crops, gain an advantage over it in the north? Rye, like wheat, is a plant of southern origin, but over a number of millennia it has become much more frost-resistant than wheat. The fact is that wheat is a self-pollinating plant, it self-fertilizes, and the frost-resistance genes that arose in individual plants could not combine into blocks of such genes during reproduction; Rye is a cross-pollinated plant and, due to cross-pollination, can form blocks of frost-resistant genes.

As for the beginning of the cultivation of rye itself, the time of its introduction into culture, then in the forest belt of Eastern Europe, according to archaeological data, it belongs to the early Iron Age (900 BC - early AD) At this time, here four types of wheat, barley, millet, rye, oats, beans, peas, pelushka (field peas), flax and hemp were grown. Moreover, the most common crops were soft wheat, barley and millet; rye and oats were grown in very small quantities. The above composition of cultures suggests that until the turn of our era, only spring farming was carried out here, and, most likely, almost exclusively on undercuts. [text from the site of the museum-reserve "Kizhi": http: // site]

The earliest written evidence of the cultivation of rye in Europe is found in the chronicles of the 1st century BC. n. e., and the first information about the cultivation of this crop in Ancient Rus' is in the annals of 1056–1115. Obviously, rye was known in Rus' earlier, but more ancient significant written monuments have not survived to this day (with the exception of birch bark letters with short messages).

For example, in Zaonezhie, on the islands of Kizhi and Volkostrov, the beginning of slash-and-burn agriculture and the cultivation of rye, barley, oats and wheat took place around 900, which was established by paleobotanical studies.

Over time, the ratio of crops grown in the forest zone of Rus' has changed greatly. The land use system developed, the climate changed, becoming colder and wetter. For 1 thousand n. e. in agriculture, the role of rye and oats has grown significantly: rye is becoming the main bread of the population, oats are already a common find in Russian settlements, along with wheat and barley. By the thirteenth century millet crops are significantly reduced. All these changes speak of the formation and development of two-field and three-field farming systems with the obligatory allocation of winter, spring and fallow fields. In addition, the predominance of the pair “winter rye - spring crops” and the presence of an admixture of seeds of characteristic field weeds also indicate the transition in the southern part of the forest belt from slash to plow fallow system.

In the north of the forest belt, winter rye was usually sown both in undercuts and in fields, right up to the 20th century; there the predominance of rye over wheat, in our opinion, was due to the established severity of the climate. Winter rye was also called upon to insure spring crops more susceptible to negative natural influences (mainly oats); we can also talk about mutual insurance in a pair of winter crops - spring crops: often in the year of a crop failure, spring crops give birth well and vice versa - that is, the farmer still does not remain without bread. In the event of the death of winter crops (usually decay or freezing), he has the opportunity in the spring to re-sow the devastated winter field with spring crops.

The predominance of rye over barley, I think, was affected by the formed taste preferences of the northern population: they clearly preferred rye bread to barley. In addition, peasant Rus' fasted, and fasting days accounted for more than half of the Orthodox year; people, in whose diet lenten food occupied so much time and place, apparently, chose rye bread for a reason. As scientists have established, already in the twentieth century, "the content of complete proteins, high calorie content, as well as the presence of vitamins (A and B) make rye bread especially valuable when the body receives an insufficient amount of meat products" .

In the very north of the agricultural zone, rye replaced barley, which, as a spring cereal with the shortest growing season, is able to ripen even at the polar border of agriculture, where rye does not withstand harsh climatic conditions.

By the end of the nineteenth century. rye in the forest belt of Russia has become even more important: from 30 to 60% of the total sown area was allocated for it, while wheat occupied less than 1%. In the Olonets province, the ratio of the area under grain crops in 1881 was as follows: 44.53% of the sown land was occupied by rye, 41.97% by oats, 13.18% by barley, 0.32% by wheat, buckwheat was sown only on 24 tithes (1 tithe is equal to 1.0925 hectares). In the Velikogubskaya volost (which included the Kizhi villages) crops in the early twentieth century. were in the following ratio: rye - 50.2%, oats - 45.5%, barley - 4.3% of the total area of ​​crops. As you can see, the share of barley here is even less than the average for the province; other crops, apparently, were sown in small quantities. Rye was the people's bread; oats were mainly fed to horses. [text from the site of the museum-reserve "Kizhi": http: // site]

In the middle of the twentieth century. rye, oats and barley remained the most common crops of the forest belt. This is a brief history of the appearance of rye in Eurasia and its existence in Russia, mainly in its forest part. The current position of rye in world agriculture is as follows: in 2000, at the turn of 2 and 3 thousand, in terms of sown area and gross grain harvest, winter rye occupied 6–7 place among grain crops, yielding to wheat, rice, barley, corn, and millet. and oats, and provided only 1-1.2% of world grain production. Russia remained and remains the largest "rye power" in the world; in 2000 it produced 26.5% of the world's gross rye grain harvest. At the same time, we, as well as all over the world, have a tendency of an annual decrease in the acreage allocated for rye.

But the situation of the "rye business" in Russia cannot be called cloudless: the downward trend at the turn of the century turned into a catastrophic decline - from 1981 to 2010. sown areas for rye have decreased by 81.9%! The fall stopped only in 2012, when there was an increase, albeit a small one, but still an increase in sown areas. If earlier Russia could rely on the significant size of its winter wedge, then in modern conditions it has lost this factor of food security. In recent years, there has been a reduction in the production and consumption of rye bread ...

As you can see, rye has been grown and is grown in many countries on different continents of the Earth. But only non-Black Earth Russia of the past, from about the 13th century. to the middle of the twentieth century, can rightly be called the undivided "rye kingdom". So, in the 70s of the nineteenth century. rye was the leading crop in 40 of the 50 provinces of European Russia; moreover, it was cultivated mainly for domestic consumption and was the main cereal of the country. Interestingly, the capital of this "kingdom of black bread" in the nineteenth century. was Moscow, because in the Moscow province, as of 1881, less wheat was sown than in any other province of European Russia - only 12 acres, which accounted for 0.003% of the total sown area, while rye was sown there occupied 55.6% of crops! In this sense, Moscow was a truly people's capital.

The possessions of the light golden queen of the fields in Russia stretched from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean; from Voronezh and Lipetsk, located at approximately latitude 52 degrees, to 69 degrees north latitude in Europe; well, in Siberia they occupied the vast majority of forest arable land, rising north to 64 degrees latitude along the Lena, Vilyuy and Aldan rivers with their tributaries.

Yes, now many, many fields are overgrown with weeds and even forests - the queen of gold leaf has lost her centuries-old positions. You need to have a fair amount of imagination to imagine your native expanses as they were in the first third of the 20th century. It is necessary to work hard to learn and understand correctly, so that the former and largely unknown even to elderly Russians, our ancient "rye culture" is resurrected in the soul.

The author came to the realization of the concept of “rye culture” or even “rye civilization” while living life in the northern land and growing bread in the exposition fields of the Kizhi Museum-Reserve, talking with northern farmers, learning from books [text from the site of the museum-reserve "Kizhi": http: // site]

about the past of the Russian North, finally, remembering his grandfather Kuzma Nikitich and his work on the ground. Grandfather's house in the Tver province was surrounded on all sides by fields, and each field for us, grandchildren, was like a sea, and most of all among them were the seas of mother rye. The seas of rye hid birds, and hares with foxes, and us, and even cows, if the shepherds overlooked it - it was tall, boundless ...

Indeed, if they talk about the "wheat culture" of Ancient Egypt and other ancient civilizations - the "maize culture" of the Mayan tribes, the "barley culture" of the peoples of the British Isles, the "rice culture" of China and Japan - then the cultures of most agricultural peoples of European Russia can be combine the word "rye" - both by the similarity of the role of rye in them, and by the similarity of household, worldview and behavioral ways of northern farmers. It seems to me that one can understand the “rye culture” as common to them, supranational.

Rye bread made from wholemeal flour on natural sourdough (in "sour" - in Zaonezhsky) was for the Russian peoples not only a food product, but also a constant powerful preservative against obesity, heart, nervous and oncological diseases. Natural rye bread, being the basis of a healthy diet, has protected offspring since ancient times, and, consequently, people's health.

It is interesting that the ideas about mother rye of the faithful sons of the Russian “rye kingdom” are directly opposite to the opinions about it of the peoples of the more southern “wheat crops”, who considered rye a malicious weed in the crops of their “queen” - wheat, and rye flour - a harmful impurity in wheat flour . Indicative in this regard is the opinion of the famous Roman writer Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD), who wrote about rye grown at the foot of the Alps, the following: “This is the worst bread and is eaten only from hunger. This plant is productive ... remarkable for its heaviness. Spelled (an ancient type of wheat) is mixed with it to soften its bitterness, but even in this form the stomach can hardly bear it. It grows on any soil and itself serves as a fertilizer. [text from the site of the museum-reserve "Kizhi": http: // site]

The names of rye in Persian, Arabic, Afghan, Sart and Turkish indicate that the farmer of Southwest Asia has known this plant since ancient times only as a weed in wheat and barley crops. In Persian, rye is called "jou-dar", or "chou-dar", - "grass that clogs barley", and rye is also called in Turkestan, India, Arabia and Asia Minor. In Afghanistan, it is called "gandum-dar" - "grass that clogs wheat." Southern farmers have fought rye since ancient times, decisively preferring wheat to it, even when rye surpassed wheat in terms of yield. It was customary for them to treat rye bread with disdain; in general, this attitude of southerners to rye persists to this day.

At present, the Western countries and the countries following in their wake - the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand - consume wheat bread almost exclusively, and the countries of Western Europe are striving to approach them in this regard. It can be said that the dominance of wheat bread is now one of the hallmarks of Western-style globalization, it affects even the ancient "rice states". But still, in the West there are reasonable forces that oppose the dictates of commercial civilization: for example, in Germany, Poland and the Scandinavian countries, rye products are included in the group of healthy and diet food; in Finland, the state is implementing the Rye program, aimed at improving the health of the country's population.

But we will continue our detailed story about our favorite black bread and mother rye. What is it, rye, which united many northern peoples and played such a significant role in their fate? Let's now look at this wonderful cultivated plant with an eye armed with the knowledge of paleobotany, taxonomy and other plant sciences.

So, where did mother rye come from? The origin of the plant of the genus rye refers to the middle and upper Tertiary periods of the Cenozoic era, i.e., it appeared approximately 55.8–23.03 million years ago. At this time, cereals arose on the earth, to which rye also belongs. According to the accepted taxonomy of plants, our field rye belongs to the family Poaceae (cereals), the tribe (knee) Hordeae (barley), the genus Secale (rye), has the specific name Secale cereale (sowing rye), given by the founder of plant taxonomy Carl Linnaeus. In fact, already in the twentieth century. it was found that sowing rye (Secale cereale) originated from weedy field rye (Secale segetale) and is actually its subspecies; but it is impossible to change the species name in favor of field weed rye, since Secale cereale is a memorial Linnaean species. [text from the site of the museum-reserve "Kizhi": http: // site]

At the end of the 19th century, Kernike singled out 5 varieties within the sowing rye species; later, five subspecies were also identified by V.D. Kobylyansky. N. I. Vavilov, having done a lot of work, established 18 varieties of cultivated rye; at the same time, V.I. and V.F. Antropov described 40 of its varieties. Note that, as a rule, several forms of rye are always found in one field at once, for example, forms with light yellow, green and brown grains; also, plants usually differ in the degree of development of awns (pointed processes of spikelet scales), the degree of pubescence of the stem, the length of the ears, the openness of the grains, and other features.

The main area of ​​origin of the genus Secale, as already mentioned, is considered Transcaucasia with adjacent Northwestern Iran and Asia Minor. Most of the established wild species that have survived here to the present are concentrated in these places. [text from the site of the museum-reserve "Kizhi": http: // site]

Sowing rye is an annual, rarely biennial or perennial herbaceous plant, usually bushy from the base, having a fibrous (looking like an “inverted bush”) root system, and this system is the most powerful among all cereals. The roots of our rye penetrate up to 2 m deep and spread widely to the sides. Under the most favorable growing conditions, one rye plant can form 14 million roots (taking into account four orders of branching) with a total length of 600 km and a total surface area of ​​225 sq. m! Some sources claim that in terms of the total length of the roots of one plant, rye is superior among all herbaceous plants in the world, and they put it on the list of record holders of the plant world with a result of more than 619 km. The weight of winter rye roots per 1 ha (10,000 sq. m) is 5900 kg, while, for example, winter wheat has 3900 kg. It is not surprising that with such a great support in the ground, rye sometimes reaches three meters above ground.

Why do we talk in such detail and colorfully about the root system of rye? Because mother rye - tall, stately, golden, firmly standing on her native land, rooted into it reliably and inextricably, has become a symbol of Russia, its vitality, beauty and kindness; played a significant role not only in the household way of life of the population, but also in the formation of its aesthetic and even ethical preferences and ideals. Actually, as in the world - a good mother for good children. And the basis of her body and beauty are amazing rye roots.

The stalk of rye is a hollow straw, consisting of 3-7 internodes - "knees" connected by nodes. The color of the stem and leaves of growing rye is green, with a bluish tinge due to a wax coating. As it matures, the bluish-green color of the field gradually changes to gray-green, yellowish-gray and, finally, becomes light gold. Scientists call a rye ear an inflorescence "a complex ear of an unfinished type" (it does not have an apical spikelet). The ear consists of two-flowered (rarely three-flowered) spikelets attached to the spike stem one above the other. Each fruiting stem forms one ear. Ripe ears of our Kizhi rye are whitish or straw-yellow in color. [text from the site of the museum-reserve "Kizhi": http: // site]

The fruit of rye is a grain of oblong or oval shape, laterally compressed, with a longitudinal groove running along the entire body, fluffy or naked at the top.

Rye is wind-pollinated and is generally a cross-pollinated plant (although self-pollinating forms of rye have developed in northern Russia and the Republic of Buryatia, guaranteeing grain production in unfavorable weather during flowering); like all wind-pollinated plants, during flowering it releases a very large amount of pollen (up to 60 thousand pollen grains in one flower), so that in calm, dry weather a real pollen cloud hovers over the rye fields. Rye usually cannot self-pollinate (self-pollinating plants make up no more than 6% of the total) and, sparse in a lean year, rye, devoid of fertilization by pollen from neighboring plants, suffers from through-grain (ears with half-empty spikelets appear) or complete infertility.

In Russia, almost exclusively winter forms of sowing rye have always been grown (and at present, winter rye accounts for 99.8% of rye crops in the Russian Federation); spring rye - yaritsa - has long been cultivated only in certain areas, for example, in Ukraine, on light soils of the Non-Black Earth Region, in Altai and in the Minusinsk Basin, as well as in those areas of Eastern Siberia and Transbaikalia where winter rye freezes. And winter, as you know, are called forms of cereals that do not ear in the summer when they are sown in the spring, that is, they need a whole year for full development. [text from the site of the museum-reserve "Kizhi": http: // site]

With a thoughtful consideration of rye - its life cycle and growth characteristics - it seems to me that we can learn for ourselves, following our great-grandfathers, the following life lessons and guidelines.

Cereals (cereal crops) have been cultivated for several millennia. They have gigantic food and even cultural significance. But modern people have little idea of ​​the difference between individual cereal crops.

Plant characteristics

Rye

Both cereals can be grown in spring and winter modes. This solution allows you to get more grain with optimal use of the fields. But rye is much better adapted to growing in Russia. Even with a snowless winter, a frost of 30 degrees is not terrible for her. That is why such a plant is actively grown in the northern and central regions.

A variety of areas are suitable for growing rye. This culture matures well on both clay and sand, even if they are not rich in nutrients. Grass doesn't care what the acidity level of the earth is. Moreover, he will be able to make clay fields better. After rye, such areas are looser and increase their drainage characteristics.

Excessive moisture levels for rye are not terrible. It has excellent immunity against fungal diseases. But the problem is that an elongated rye stalk falls more often than a wheat ear. This complicates the harvest and slows it down. But there are other advantages.

• Rye sprouts quickly even under relatively unfavorable conditions.
• There are 12 wild-growing varieties per 1 cultivated species of this cereal.
• Straight, hollow inside the stem is covered with special gray leaves.
• The ear grows in two rows.
• The roots of rye are very well developed, they reach a depth of 2 m. It is this property that allows you to get decent yields on poor sand.

Wheat

Wheat, regardless of the varietal group, pollinates itself. The yield is determined by climatic factors. For this plant, the duration of illumination during the day and the supply of heat are critical. Severe winter colds have a very bad effect on the state of wheat plantations. Often, with a small amount of snow, winter wheat does not survive until spring.

This plant is demanding on the ground. The best yields are achieved on nutrient-rich black soil. Podzolic soil will also be good. But the high acidity of the earth immediately destroys wheat. If the humidity rises above a certain level, fungal infection is likely.

This cereal is also much weaker than rye protected from various weeds. Both crops produce grain suitable for:

• making bread and other baked products;
• receiving pasta;
• nutrition of domestic animals and poultry;
• production of ethyl alcohol.

It is necessary to say a little about what wheat looks like. A wheat leaf can grow up to 2 cm wide. It may have hairs on it, although this is not necessary.

The inflorescences of the main cereal form an ear reaching 0.15 m in length. All ears are formed by 3-5 flowers. The fruits of wheat belong to the category of grains.

Similarities and differences

By appearance

Even those people who have never gone out into the eared field in their lives understand that there is a significant difference between rye and wheat. It is reflected both in the properties of bread and in its appearance. However, the grain of these crops is also different. Wheat fruits are painted in a golden tone. Rye grains are greenish with a gray tint, like meadow timothy.

Comparison of ears also shows tangible differences. So, the wheat shoot is thicker than the rye shoot, both crops have “antennae”, but on wheat they can break off completely when the grains ripen. Wheat has more varieties than rye and any other cereals. But the rye ear is heavier than the wheat one, because it can reach 2 m compared to the maximum growth of 1.5 m for wheat.

Both wheat and rye are grown almost throughout the entire inhabited territory of the globe. They have a kind of hybrid (triticale). Wheat comes from the southeastern regions of Turkey.

Rye was first introduced into cultivation somewhere on the Mediterranean coast. It has not yet been possible to determine more precisely. Durum varieties of wheat are fully related to the spring group, and an exceptionally soft type of cereal is planted before winter.

If grains are compared by chemical composition, then in rye, they contain an increased concentration of niacin. They also have more tocopherol. Such components have a positive effect on the nervous system. Rye grain has a higher concentration of dietary fiber, which helps prevent many cases of colon cancer. But gluten, which wheat produces more actively, improves the quality of the dough.

By properties

For consumers, another question is interesting - which cereal is more useful. The nutritional value of wheat is somewhat greater, it allows you to get more delicious bread. But the difference in energy value is only 1 calorie (338 and 339, respectively). Therefore, other components and technological aspects of its production are more reflected in the real nutritional value of bread. For 100 g of rye grain there are:

• more than 60 g of carbohydrates;
• 8.8 g protein;
• 1.7 g fat.

Important additional components are dietary fiber (their 13.2 g) and mineral components (almost 2 g). Chemical analysis of wheat grains shows that they contain:

• from 68 to 71 g of carbohydrates;
• 14 g of protein;
• 2 to 2.5 g of fat.

Dietary fiber accounts for 10 g, starch and sugar are also present. Therefore, in terms of overall nutritional value and health benefits, wheat is far ahead of rye. But the dietary characteristics of the latter are noticeably higher.

Therefore, rye products, primarily obtained from wholemeal flour, are better suited for overweight people and high cholesterol levels.

The final characteristics are determined by the specific variety and subsequent processing.

Wheat grains after sprouting are valuable for medical and cosmetic purposes. They help speed up wound healing and strengthen the immune system. Cosmetologists value wheat germ for their ability to rejuvenate the skin. But rye germs are unsuitable for such purposes. But its straw, even now, is occasionally used to cover the roofs of utility buildings in rural areas.