This is a little something that I did about four years ago. Yes, it's real wheat. And yes, it was grown in the heart of New York City.

Here's how it happened. The Hobbitt loves to feed the birds, and I do what I can to help. In this case, there was a birdfeeder behind our house, by the garage. Pigeons are a constant problem in NYC, with many natives considering them as rats with feathers. To discourage them, I put the feeder in an area with tall grass, so as to discourage the pigeons, who did most of their foraging on the ground.

As a result many of the seeds that would have been eaten were able to germinate instead. Well, you never know exactly what sort of seeds you'll find in the average bag of birdseed. Imagine my surprise on looking out by the garage one day and seeing wheat growing there. It looked just like the pictures on the cereal box.

Towards the end of the season, I thought it might be time to harvest my little crop. So one afternoon, I visited the backyard with a scissors and did the dirty deed. But what to do with it? I guess I could have taken it to a mill to have it ground into flour. There probably was enough to make a muffin.

Instead, I put it into a vase after cutting the stalks to an appropriate length. Then I trimmed out the weeds and other green stuff and, voila, a wheat sculpture. Unfortunately, it was too fragile to transport, so it got lost in our move to Virginia. This picture is all that remains.