Red Fife is the wheat the prairies were built on — Canada's oldest named bread wheat, the grain that filled the granaries of the first homesteads. Benco grows it for us just up the road and we take it in by the harvest. Sweet, nutty, and deeply complex once it meets a hot stone.
Red Fife was the standard bread wheat across Canada from the 1840s until it was bred out of the system in favour of higher-yielding hybrids. A handful of prairie farmers kept it alive, and the flavour is the reason — there is a depth to a Red Fife loaf that modern commodity wheat simply does not have.
We sell it as whole berries so the clock does not start until you mill. Whole grain keeps for years; flour goes stale in weeks. Run it through a stone mill the morning you bake and the difference is not subtle.
Strong, extensible gluten makes it a forgiving sourdough wheat — it handles long fermentation and high hydration without turning to soup.
Red Fife heritage hard red wheat, grown by Benco near Plum Coulee, Manitoba. Current crop year.
Typically 13–14% — strong, extensible gluten suited to sourdough and pan loaves.
50 lb food-grade poly bag. Store cool and dry; keeps two years or more. Freeze on arrival as cheap insurance against pantry moths.
Fresh-milled bread flour, or cooked whole as a chewy pilaf or grain bowl base.
Mill on the coarsest setting for cracked-wheat porridge, the finest for bread and pastry. A first pass through a flaker or coarse mill then a second fine pass gives the silkiest flour if your mill runs hot.
Fresh whole-grain flour drinks more water than white flour — expect to add 5–10% more liquid to an old recipe, and let the dough rest 20–30 minutes before judging the hydration.
To cook whole: simmer 1 cup berries in 3 cups water for 50–60 minutes until chewy-tender. Freezes well cooked.
Free shipping anywhere in Manitoba on orders over $500. Saskatchewan and Alberta: flat rate or by weight, calculated at checkout. Beyond the prairies, call us at (204) 829-2311 and we'll quote it honestly — no surprise fees, no inflated handling.
Unopened, shelf-stable goods can be returned within 30 days. If anything arrives damaged or short, email a photo to prairiefoods@live.ca and we'll make it right the same week.
Picked up a 50 lb bag on a Saturday and have been milling it fresh all winter. The loaves have a sweetness store flour never gave me. — Karen L., Morden
Knowing it was grown a few miles away matters to me, and it bakes beautifully. Stored half in the freezer, no issues. — Dietrich F., Winkler