The Prairie Star: Montana Ag Newspaper

NEW YORK, N.Y. - The South Street Seaport is a place where New Yorkers and visitors go to shop, eat, and take in views of the Brooklyn Bridge and the harbor.

For more than 200 years it has been a place where the past and the present come together. And, for three days in October it was the place where finance came face to face with farming.

In an effort to educate people about America's most-consumed grain, the Wheat Foods Council built an interactive wheat exhibit at the intersection of Water Street and South Street in lower Manhattan.

The “Urban Wheat Field Experience” brought the farm to table journey to life with a wheat field, full-sized combine, functioning mill, bread baking station and nutrition lab.

The live wheat field, which was on display Oct. 6-8, was approximately one quarter of an acre, or one city block.

Assembling a wheat field in the middle of the financial district proved to be quite a challenge. Grown in a greenhouse in New Jersey, the field was brought in on 300 pallets. Trucks were custom-made to carry the pallets and could only drive into the city between midnight and 2 a.m. The field was assembled quickly because the wheat could not stay in a hot truck all night.

New York City was chosen for the experience because it is a heavy traffic area, and a media hotspot, explained Col-leen Hart, an associate with Burson-Mars-teller, a Chicago public relations firm representing The Wheat Foods Council.

“It seemed most appropriate to get the biggest bang for our buck,” said Hart.

Bringing a rural wheat field to an urban setting also provided a visual impact for the organization, she added.

Experts in the areas of wheat agriculture, milling, baking and nutrition guided more than 8,000 visitors through each phase of the grain's life cycle with hands-on activities and a variety of demonstrations.

Ten local groups organized “field” trips to the Urban Wheat Field including local 4-H groups and schools. “The most interesting thing was to just sit back and watch their reaction to this huge wheat field in the middle of the city,” said Hart.

Visiting kids were very engaged, getting to see and touch a wheat field for the first time in many of their lives, she said.

Growers led wheat field tours highlighting how, where and when wheat is grown, annual wheat production and consumption, and wheat's impact on food prices and the U.S. economy.

Visitors were invited to hand-grind their own wheat flour in a presentation led by milling experts. They also explained the process that turns the wheat kernel into flour. In the three days, 400 pounds of wheat kernels were milled at the milling station. Bread-baking was demonstrated by certified chefs who also explained flour's transformation into the wheat foods consumed by American's daily. Hundreds of cookies and nearly 500 loaves of bread were baked in the three-day period at the baking station.

“People wanted to buy it,” Hart said of the fresh baked loaves, adding they commented that it was the best bread they had ever eaten.

In addition, registered dietitians explained the nutritional properties of wheat food and the differences between whole wheat and enriched wheat flour.

Visitors were encouraged to plant their own seeds and were given postcards with wheat kernels attached. More than 5,000 wheat-based food samples were also distributed from Mars Nutrition, Kraft, General Mills and Kelloggs.

“Bringing a wheat field was just an idea two years ago,” said Hart. “To see it come to fruition, the collaboration of all the members, and the donated time, mills and ovens - “I think everyone just really chipped in.”

Information about the Urban Wheat Field Experience and images can be found at www.wheatfoods.org.