I'm being told in discord that wheat is available early. I'm at the Hunt realms and I don't have it yet. Apparently it looks almost exactly like many many low-level fiber plants, but it only grows near human settlements.
Given that a side quest depends on it, that's kind of ridiculous; it should be very visually distinct, or mixed in with low-level fiber plants for the early parts of the game when you're still harvesting that stuff.