WinCo has that little corner of the store that carries what could best be described as ‘preparedness minded’ products….bags of flour, rice, salt, sugar, 5-gallon buckets, lids, etc…but one thing that was notably absent was wheat. Oh, flour they’ve got plenty of..but wheat? Not so much.
So, I was a bit surprised to se this today:
Hard white wheat in 25# bags. I wonder if they’ll get more varieties or if this is a one-time ‘gauge the response’ sort of offering. Regardless, it’s a welcome offering.
Grab some, you can never have enough.
Wheat is good food, but it is NOT food to be using the first time in a ‘situation’. It comes with a learning curve.
Even if someone considers themselves a good baker, turning wheat berries into flour is a labor intensive operation with a hand powered grinder. Most people won’t spring for a powered mill, as they are expensive and useless when the power is out. (Now, I do know one gentleman who rigged a gas engine to a hand mill, but that’s an exception.
There’s good reasons why communities came together around a miller who had invested in large water powered gear.
If sacks of wheat and a hand mill are part of the plan, I very much recommend using it often enough that it becomes normal, if not easy. (I’ll also mention that rice through a hand mill makes a pretty good flour in it’s own right, although without gluten or structure. It makes grand cookies).
Wheat turned into bulger is pretty darned good, but again there’s a learning curve. Wheat sprouted, and then cooked into soup or stew is also an easy way to enjoy it…. IF you know how to sprout wheat reliably. It happens to make a darned tasty omelet, by the way.
If one has a blender and electricity, a handful of wheat berries and a cup of water will make a rough ho-cake batter…. in about five minutes of straight up noise.
The upside of whole wheat berries is a VERY long storage life, and fairly dense food energy source. The downside…. that learning curve.
My wife bakes a lot with wheat. We have a GrainMaker hand mill and a bicycle attachment. Haven’t used it yet. She grinds her wheat in a electric mill. Over the years I have purchased about six of these mills and they are in storage as backup. I purchased used electric mills for about 100.00 each over the years on Ebay. Magic Mill II or III are good as well as L’Equip. They both have interchangeable top and bottoms.
She also makes whole wheat sourdough bread. She uses a Sourdough Starter from South Africa that can raise whole wheat flour without yeast. Her sponge is about 4 years old now, she feeds it about every two weeks and keeps it in the refrigerator. You can get the South African starter on Amazon.
An old friend of mine has six kids and in her basement she had an old bicycle rigged up to a flour grinder. The grinder sat on a small end table inside a kiddie pool to help minimize the mess. That helped get me into prepping years ago.
great for sprouts too.
Tried to buy grain on-line through Pleasant Hill Grain. Everything I looked at was out of stock but you could order it and wait.
Azure Standard has some wheat in stock, but I don’t have any experience ordering from them. Have heard good things about them.
https://www.azurestandard.com
Rainy Day Foods has sells buckets of wheat and is one of the few places that you can buy Ezekiel Mix in buckets. You can live off that mix as it has all 8 Aminio Acids.
The mix was given to the Prophet Ezekiel by God. You can read about the contents of he mix in the book of Ezekiel.
Grab yourself a few bags of wheat berries, a copy of The Tassajara Bread Book if you don’t have one already, set up that Mill and have some fun and get a good workout at the same time. Plenty of fond memories here as a 50 year younger man.