You can't beat wheat for nutrition and long term storage. If stored correctly it will keep almost indefinitely. The uses for wheat vary widely from bread to wheat grass juice to sprouts. We have been buying wheat in bulk and grinding it for bread for over 30 years. For us, it's the only way to go.
First up, nutrition. It's packed, including calories and carbohydrates for energy and vitality. This is a link to the website I use to compare nutritional values for all kinds of foods.
We haven't ever eaten wheat sprouts, or wheat grass, or wheat juice, but we have read about it. When it comes to wheat, the sky is the limit. In years past we cracked the wheat and cooked it for a breakfast cereal. Here are a couple of links that may give you some new ideas about how to add wheat, or more wheat, to your diet.
Wheat Sprouts: Health Benefits and How to Grow Them
Bulk wheat is getting a little hard to find right now, but if you look, you can still find some. And if you do find some, I would highly recommend buying all you can. Wheat berries store much better than flours and they contain the nutrients of the entire berry, unlike any flour you can buy. For years I thought the whole wheat flour I was buying was just that, whole wheat. It is not. Some of the most nutritious parts of the wheat berry are removed to increase shelf stability and prevent rancidity. By the way, a wheat berry and a wheat grain are one and the same thing. I've always wondered why it's called a berry....
We have gone from making yeast bread to sourdough bread. The fermenting process of making sourdough releases more nutrients, lowers the carbohydrate count, and forgoes the necessity of having yeast on hand. For us that has been the way to go. Here are some past articles we have written using wheat.
If you want to make bread from wheat, you will need a grain grinder of some sort. There are many different kinds and most folks have their own preferences. Here is our manual variety if we ever have the need to use it as opposed to our electric model shown in the previous articles.
There are other things you can do with wheat besides make bread. Such as.......
Folks, it is indeed a very hot summer. The 'events' in our country appear to wax and wane, but overall the heat and intensity of our nation's discontent cannot be overlooked. Food prices continue to rise. Growing conditions around the country are strange this year, with food production being impacted in very unusual ways. It appears that the days of taking for granted the fully stocked shelves at the grocery store may become a thing of the past. We seldom go to a store, but lately the shelves appear to have fewer thin or bare spots. The increase in prices, though continues to surprise us every time we go.
Think nutrition. Think calories. Think how deep you need to stock your shelves to provide for you and yours for the long term. We don't know how the plandemic will turn out. We don't know how the communist, anarchist attempts at overthrowing our government will turn out. We don't know if a war will break out. We don't know what is going on anymore, what is true, what is total lies, smoke and mirrors. What we do know is that there is a good probability that we will be on our own, left to our own devices. And in that case. You need food. You need nutrition. You need calories. For everyone within your realm of responsibility. None of us ever want to be in the situation where our loved one looks us in the eye and says, "Daddy, I'm hungry." Not when we had the opportunity to do something about it ahead of time. Folks, don't be too late. The consequences will be too much to bear if you are.
Until next time - Fern
Fern~ You just made my Husband of 41 years day! He will be checking out all the recipes you have listed, especially the Sourdough wheat bread recipe. Thank you. In God's Safekeeping. Red
ReplyDeleteLike you, I have turned to sourdough. I have a starter that I have kept going for over a decade now (kept in the refrigerator between uses). I have a couple of large blocks of yeast in the freezer but they're old enough at this point that I don't know if they would even proof. Another recipe worth having is one for decent unleavened bread. I found one online for communion bread that works pretty well. It might make a nice change of pace if you found yourself having to work wheat into more of your meals.
ReplyDeleteI have a screen sifter to make something approaching all-purpose flour if the need ever arises (I haven't tried it yet). I usually don't make 100% whole wheat loaves.
On stocking up: it's definitely possible now, but as we have recently seen, that can change in a few days.
Thanks for the wheat article, it is a wake up call for us . We have buckets and cans of wheat berries set aside in storage and a hand grinder and an electric grinder as well.We have not used them but this prompted us to get our assets in gear and put them to use. We do bake our own bread and rolls using bread flour from a store. We live in wheat growing country, surrounded by 1,000's of acres of wheat fields so getting wheat in the future may be a little easier.
ReplyDeleteThe storm clouds are forming and time is of the essence in all matters.May God bless and guide all.
Bluesman
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ReplyDeleteI can order all of the wheat berries that I need from a local store, so I am going to do so. However, I know nothing about how to store it. How do you advise me to store it? I am getting some 7.5 gallon plastic barrels with lids with a rubber gasket and a pour spout. I was thinking about putting the wheat in bags inside the barrels and putting them in my basement. Would this work? What kind of bags should I use? Would Ziploc or Foodsaver bags work? Do I need to add anything to them? I also need a manual grinder, but I can't afford much at this time. I have my grandma's grinder that she used for meats and cheeses. Would it work? If not, do you know of something inexpensive that will do the job, even if it is a little more work?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your help.
Grammy, here is the way we store wheat, just loose in the bucket with a Gamma Seal lid. If you have buckets that seal well with a gasket, that should work for the wheat. We make sure the rating on the bottom of our buckets is a #2 inside a triangle, which is supposed to be food grade. Make sure your buckets are new and clean and haven't been used for anything else.
Deletehttps://thoughtsfromfrankandfern.blogspot.com/2019/02/got-wheat-ferns-sourdough-bread.html
Is the wheat you are buying for human or animal consumption? Has it been treated?
Here is the manual grinder we use as a back up to our electric. Meat and vegetable grinders don't work the same way as a grain grinder. I hope some other folks will chime in with how they do theirs.
https://thoughtsfromfrankandfern.blogspot.com/2014/10/grain-grinder-manual-type.html
There are manual grinders from relatively inexpensive to very expensive. We always read the reviews to see if an item has a flaw that would make us keep looking. Here is just an idea page from Wal-Mart.
https://www.walmart.com/c/kp/grain-mills
I hope this helps. Keep the questions coming, we're all in this together.
Fern
Thank you for your help. I know of no one who stores wheat berries. Everyone I know stores flour. Yes, the wheat is for human consumption. It's from a small grocery store owned and run by a Mennonite family. I don't know what I'd do without you.
DeleteYou mentioned food-compatible buckets. I have plenty of those, but have heard that rats can smell food through plastic buckets, and the plastic is easy to chew through. I have bought some new steel garbage cans as a far more secure way to store food in an outbuilding which is not rat-proof.
DeleteI bought my manual grain grinder at the thrift store. It was still in the box and looked like it had never been used. I offer this up to say look around as you may not have to pay full retail price.
ReplyDeleteAnd I bought an electric grain mill with my first purchase of wheat berries. The same model a friend has - not the most expensive but what I could afford at the time.
Right now I'm on the hunt for a tomato press with attachments to do berries and pumpkin. I've read that the Squeezo is the top of the line model but no longer made. Anyone have a suggestion? I'd prefer USA made and as many metal parts as possible, as opposed to plastic.
Cheers, SJ in Vancouver BC Canada
Most of my wheat for long-term storage is in #10 cans with O2 absorbers. For buckets, I have read that a mylar liner is most likely to succeed, because the buckets can be permeable (BYU tested wheat buckets with varying numbers of absorbers and found inconsistent results: sometimes it worked and sometimes not). Even if there is oxygen in the bucket, wheat stores okay, but the main problem becomes the potential for insect infestation if the wheat wasn't frozen or bugs/eggs weren't eliminated before storing.
ReplyDeleteWheat that I am using just goes into repurposed pretzel barrels--a large one holds 10 pounds. I don't worry about oxygen in those because I open them frequently, and I have never seen signs of insects, even though 10 pounds takes a while to go through.
I would think a 7.5 gallon bucket would be heavy if full--making use of a pour spout challenging.
I have a Country Living mill, which works very well for wheat grinding, but it takes a lot of effort. I use it now mostly for corn. I also have a Mockmill 100, which is my normal method of grinding wheat.
I plan on storing it in the barrels, but not pouring from them. I will remove the lid to get the wheat.
DeleteBtw,if anyone is looking for bulk grains and not finding any: Azure Standard may work. They have a lot in stock and may ship to a location nearby. It looks like they only ship in bags, however, so it'd have to be further packaged for long-term storage. There are other similar co-ops (such as Breadbeckers) that may be viable, as well.
ReplyDeleteJust read in Zero Hedge https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/agricultural-warfare-people-are-receiving-mysterious-unsolicited-packages-seeds-mail about Seeds being send from China, If you you receive any seeds you haven't ordered do not open the packed it may be an virus or genetically modified seeds - take no risk!!!
ReplyDeleteGod bless you!
I hope Frank and Fern are doing ok, and putting up a lot of produce. God Bless.
ReplyDeleteHaven't heard from you in a while, just wanted to say hi, miss you guys.
ReplyDeleteShirley