Lots of wheat around here very ripe and appears ready to harvest. Winter wheat, Spring wheat, wheat wheat...... what's the difference but for the time of year it is in the ground?? Thanks.

Not sure where you are? here spring wheat is lower yielding but not subject to winter kill. About a buck a bushel over winter wheat.

Both grow different classes. There is hard red winter and hard white both used for different baking products. Winter wheat needs to go dormant with so many days that are so cold to go into a reproductive stage. Most spring wheat grow a soft class of wheat. A lot of spring wheats are grown where winter gets cold enough winter wheats will winter kill. Googling wheat classes will let you read up on what each class of wheat is used for noodles, bread ect.

There is more to different varieties of wheat than the time it is put in the ground. In fact, in most places, if you were to plant spring wheat in the fall, it would winterkill. And winter wheat needs the dormant season to really produce.

Hard red winter wheat is a flour/bread type of wheat. It contains more protein and gluten which gives bread that elastic feel when you pull off a chunk.

Hard white winter wheat is a recent thing, from what I remember, it is popular in the northwest for export to Asian countries.

Soft white wheat (spring wheat) is generally your pastry type wheat, think the difference between saltine crackers and bread, no elasticity, minimal fluffiness, flaky crusts.

There is also durum which is used in pastas. It is also a spring variety.

There are a few other near wheat grains like spelts, rye or triticale that can be used in flours. It depends on the purpose the millers have for it and the character of the wheat. Sometimes there is even a surprising amount of barley (not wheat) flour in the plain white flour from the store.

If you have a chance to sample freshly ground flours from the different types of wheat, you can quickly appreciate the differences. When wheat is graded by elevators, millers or high school FFA students, they are expected to differentiate spring wheat kernels from a sample of winter wheat.