What's a WheatBerry?

Among the items I bought from Ernst Farm at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market Saturday was a package of wheatberries. My motive: curiosity. So I googled around to find out what to do with my $1 investment. I did know and could see that these were the unhulled, unmilled, unground wheat grains.

Above you see a 3-grain salad, result of my research. I used roughly equal parts of wheatberries, rice, and wild rice (total: 1 cup of grain), tossed in hot oil for a bit with a chopped small onion (also from the market), slowly steamed for 1 hour in chicken broth with frequent stirring and additions of water as the grains swelled and toasted on the bottom of the no-stick pot. Then I let the pot cool a bit and tossed the grain with dried fruit (total 3/4 cup) and vinaigrette dressing, and topped the salad with some toasted walnuts. It was very nice: chewy but seemed fully cooked.