Speltastur specializes in the cultivation, processing, and commercialization of spelt varieties from Asturias.
In ancient times and the Middle Ages, spelt (“spelt in Asturias”) was cultivated over a vast area, being the most consumed cereal by humans. In the first third of the 16th century, its cultivation began to decline, in competition with corn, a cereal of American origin that eventually almost replaced it.
Asturias grew six cereals: three for winter and three for summer. The three winter spelt cereals are spelt, wheat, and rye, and the three summer spelt cereals are corn, millet, and bread.
The flours of wheat, spelt, rye, and corn were used to respectively make the following four types of bread: wheat bread, “fisga” bread, rye bread, and borona cornbread or cornbread.
The spelt from Asturias can belong to two species: Triticum Spelta and Triticum Diccocum. In Asturias, both varieties of spelt are cultivated.
The spelt harvest was carried out by separating the corn ears from the stalk, using the “mesoris”, taking several stalks at a time with the sticks they are composed of, connected at one end by a rope, and pulling upwards the ears are plucked, which were thrown into a basket carried by another person behind the one handling the “mesoris”.
The ears collected with the “mesorias” were taken to the threshing floor to be “mayés”, which means beaten with long sticks to separate and break the ears and leave the “ergas” (grain with husk) separated.
Once this was done, the spelt was transported in “erga” to a mortar where the “poxia” (husk covering the grain) was separated from the grain. And finally, in water mills, the highly prized “farina d’escanda” was obtained.
Our project was born when the spelt varieties from Asturias were on the verge of disappearing, in the late 1990s.
We embarked on a long journey of research into the last harvests, seed multiplication, mechanization of cultivation, and the installation of modern lines for hulling, cleaning, and grain selection.
Throughout these years, we have created working agreements with several mills throughout Spain, and we have continuously advocated for spelt consumption at a professional level, being members of the first associations of cereal technicians, millers, and bakers in Spain (AFSHE, AETC, CEOPAN…).
For more information, please contact them via this form.