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Posted on 10/03/2026 5:12:53 AM PDT by Twotone
In the exhibit hall of a convention center in Lubbock, Texas, chef Chase Obenchain stands on a small black stage, demonstrating how to make a variation of Spanish rice.
As attendees are served the dish for lunch, Obenchain adds the ingredients to a pan: garlic, onions, tomatoes – but not rice. Instead, this dish calls for sorghum.
“Sorghum has a really, really beautiful way of just absorbing whatever cooking liquid that there is with it to be able to really showcase whatever other things it's being cooked with,” Obenchain said while he mixed the pearl-like sorghum grains with the vegetables.
Obenchain was cooking at the Global Sorghum Conference in mid-September for an audience of researchers, farmers and agribusiness professionals from around the world – all people well acquainted with sorghum. As corporate chef for the Sorghum Checkoff, a group that supports the sorghum industry, Obenchain often appears publicly to speak about the hardy grain. But usually he has to start with the basics.
“The first thing people say to me when I say I work with sorghum, it’s usually ‘What is sorghum?’” Obenchain said.
(Excerpt) Read more at kcur.org ...
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When driving across Kansas one sees alternating fields of mile after mile after mile of crops.
One such crop is sorghum
In East Tennessee, the sorghum was crushed in a sorghum mill and the fluid cooked down to sorghum molasses. Alsa, no more.
“Alsa, no more”
Alas, poor Alsa. I knew her, Horatio.
Sorghum is the healthiest grain.
I’m all for it.
Sorghum fields make great dove-hunting patches.
Dove birds make great eating (just watch out of the birdshot).
Grain is dried up shit.
Eat less of it, not more.
“Sorghum has a really, really beautiful way of just absorbing whatever cooking liquid that there is with it to be able to really showcase whatever other things it’s being cooked with“
So, like Rice. Does Sorghum cook fast? Brown Rice takes a long time. Worth it. But at any kind of elevation, forget it. How does Sorghum do at 6,000’ or higher?
I saw sorghum molasses at Buckees.
Millet is also being touted as a human food, not just birdseed. All this talk about millet and sorghum as food should make our African and Indian immigrants happy.
Actually sorghum pasta used as a substitute for flour pasta is pretty good.
Corn, wheat and rice became the global food and feed staples for good reasons, but many other grains are available and most have been used somewhere at some time. I’m always happy to see people keeping now obscure historial alternatives alive, but trying unusual breads is about as experimental as I’ve ever gotten.
So my question is why sorghum lost out to wheat as the go-to crop. Was it consumer preference? Was it farmer economics, e.g. cost of production and yield? Was it ease of preparation? The gluten in wheat is really useful if you are making bread, as anyone who tries to go down the gluten free rabbit hole will promptly discover. But that’s for human consumption. By and large, the animals don’t seem to care, at least not enough to complain, although they do show preferences if given options.
I’ve known a couple of people with ciliac disease who had enough of a reaction to be seriously motivated to find alternatives (as opposed to just jumping onto the fad diet of the week), and one was a woman who had acute physical reactions just from very casual exposure such as walking into a kitchen where wheat flour was being used. But that sort of thing is a tiny percentage of the cases. Her husband was a farmer. And yes, he grew sorghum (and a lot of other things.)
What’s the knock on sorghum? My first guess is that yields are low enough that sorghum can’t compete with corn, wheat and rice. It has become a niche dryland crop, and possibly what sorghum is competing against is ranching. Or some other dryland crop, not necessarily a feedgrain, with higher financial returns for farmers.
As a kid, we always had Sorghum & biscuits at formal family meals. I love it to this day.
Also, better on pancakes, french toast, and waffles than syrup, or at least a pleasant change.
Alas no more…her virtue is a cloak for her vice
Only worry if you are hunting with a Chaney.
Both millet and sorghum originated in Africa and Asia and are heavily celebrated for being incredibly drought-tolerant. Because they thrive in hot, semi-arid climates where wheat and corn fail, they serve as vital staple foods for hundreds of millions of people globally. They are also highly nutritious, offering a rich profile of fiber, B-complex vitamins, and essential minerals.
White Maize.
Not new.
Very commonly used in cooking in India.
My family has owned/farms here in this county in the Rolling Plains of Texas since 1889.
We produced Certified wheat seed for a number of years.
We tried 3 different hard white winter wheat seed varieties. One of them was amazing, for 2 years under no till one actually harvested 70 bushels an acre (dry land). It has a tendency to sprout in the head with heavy rain at harvest time.
You are right! Pearl millet is an ancient food and well worth trying.
Beats bugs.
How much fertilizer is optimal for max. yield in US fields?
Farming is easy, if your pencil is your plow, and the nearest farm is a thousand miles away.
Where is NJ? Hungry
I think the high point of Iowa is well below 6000 ft.
High in phytoestrogen?
If so, another poison food for male fertility.
...like soy?
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