Eastern Washington is commodity wheat country; over 2 million acres of the grain grow in the state each year. Although researchers and farmers continue to explore alternative crops, today’s soft white wheat is remarkably easy and cheap to grow in this arid region.

Over a decade ago, however, two small Washington farms began embracing diverse varieties of wheat, growing hulled ancestors including spelt, emmer, and einkorn, collectively called farro. It’s often difficult to create demand for an unfamiliar crop—and these two farms took different, yet equally successful, approaches. One farm primarily connected with Seattle-based chefs, the other focused on reaching consumers at farmers’ markets and health food stores. The net effect has been a surging local demand for these ancient grains.

And the ancient grain craze shows no signs of slowing down. Named a top food trend by the National Restaurant Association in its “What’s Hot in 2015” report, ancient wheat varieties are an important part of the grain movement.

Last year, demand for spelt grew 360 percent, while demand for farro grew 39 percent. Consumer skepticism about gluten and a rise in gluten-free products—up 63 percent from 2012-2014—has also prompted some consumers to look critically at modern wheat varieties, which were bred to be much higher in gluten than ancestral varieties.

In 1999, Lena Lentz Hardt grew her last commodity wheat crop in eastern Washington. Instead of the varieties bred for maximum production, she wanted to grow wheat’s more nutritious ancestors for the specialty grain market at her farming operation, Lentz Spelt Farms.

Hardt and her partner René Featherstone connected with a Montana State University (MSU) professor exploring farro varieties he obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Small Grain Germplasm Research Facility, a seedbank located in Aberdeen, Idaho. They adopted varieties of MSU-released spelt and emmer and secured some of the few einkorn seeds available after that project was dropped.

The Lentz farm is 240 acres, and they contract with several organic growers to raise the emmer, einkorn, and additional spelt. At the time, though, it was a bit of a gamble. “Nobody in eastern Washington even knew what spelt was back then,” Hardt says.

She recalls explaining spelt, emmer, and einkorn hundreds of times at local farmers’ markets, while Featherstone gave talks at health food stores. They sell much of their spelt to Bob’s Red Mill, a Portland, Oregon-based specialty grain mill and retailer, their emmer is sold at local retailers including Whole Foods as well as the Seattle-based Tallgrass Bakery. All of their farro, including einkorn, is available through the Seattle-based online retailer chefshop.com.

Bluebird Grain Farms, a central Washington-based organic grower of emmer and einkorn, took a different tact—reaching out directly to chefs and bakers in Seattle and Portland. “What I love about farro is its versatility,” says Brooke Lucy, who, along with her husband Sam, runs the farm in the Okanagan Valley. “It can be cooked as a rice, hot cereal, polenta or ground into a flour for cakes, bread or pasta; it feels like a staple grain, but it has an amazing sweet, nutty flavor.”

Brooke Lucy had encountered farro as an exchange student in northern Italy. Twenty years later when she started to farm, she realized that Italy supplied all the farro in the U.S. Providing a local, domestic source was an enticing option. The Lucys grew 20 acres and shared it in the local community first and people liked it. Soon, they set up a mill to make their own flour. “It was helpful to show people all the options.”  Now they grow emmer and einkorn on their 280–acre farm.