Ancient Grains Guide is an independent editorial project devoted to heritage grains — einkorn, emmer, spelt, teff, amaranth, sorghum, and a dozen more that fed people for millennia and then slipped out of the modern pantry. We pair an interactive explorer for 18 grain species with a growing library of 100+ in-depth articles on baking, nutrition, history, and how to actually cook these grains at home. If you want the why behind the project, read our mission; this page is about the how.
How we research and source
Everything factual on this site traces back to a source you can check yourself:
- Nutrition figures come from the USDA FoodData Central database, not from packaging or estimates.
- Botany and distribution draw on iNaturalist observation data and Plants For A Future for species detail.
- History and archaeology are built from published academic and museum sources.
- Recipes and techniques reflect methods we have actually tested in the kitchen, not spun from a template.
How we handle health claims
A lot of grain content online blurs the line between "ancient" and "healthy." We don't. We are bakers, cooks, and food writers — not doctors or dietitians, and we never pretend to be. So every health- or safety-related statement on this site (which grains contain gluten, what is and isn't safe for celiac disease, how digestion differs between heritage and modern wheat) is grounded in and cited to authoritative bodies: the Celiac Disease Foundation, Coeliac UK, the USDA, and peer-reviewed research. If a claim could affect your health, we show you where it came from so you can verify it or take it to your own clinician. When the honest answer is "the evidence is still emerging," we say that too.
Who writes it
Articles are researched, written, and reviewed by a small editorial team who work with these grains directly — sourdough bakers, home cooks, and food writers with distinct regional focuses, which is why you'll see different bylines on different grains. Our authority comes from doing the work and citing our sources, not from letters after a name. Every article carries a published date and, when we revise it, an updated date, so you always know how current it is.
How we make money
The site is free to read and carries no paywall. We fund it through affiliate partnerships: when we recommend a flour, a grain mill, a bread machine, or a whole grain, some links earn us a small commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. We only list products we have researched and often use ourselves, and we never recommend something for the commission alone. A recommendation that we wouldn't make to a friend doesn't belong here. Full details are in our affiliate disclosure.
Corrections and contact
We get things wrong sometimes, and we'd rather fix them than defend them. If you spot an error — a nutrition figure, a botanical detail, a recipe step that didn't work — tell us and we'll correct it and note the update. Reach us anytime through our contact page.