Wheat: tips, recipes, how to's

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Weedygarden

Awesome Friend
Neighbor
HCL Supporter
Joined
Dec 3, 2017
Messages
19,386
Almost 40 years ago I took a food storage class and the base food in that class was wheat. Powdered milk, salt, and oil were also on the list, but wheat was the mainstay for many years for food storage. There are people who have 100's if not 1000's of pounds of it stored!

I have wheat. When did I last use any of it? Years! But I have! Now I want to explore using it again.

I once heard a young married woman say, "If food storage is about wheat, I will never have food storage." I didn't know her and have no idea of her background. I get her sentiment about wheat! But wheat is inexpensive and easy to store, if packaged well and stored well.

There are all kinds of things that can be done with wheat, but I will not limit myself to wheat. I have become more of a bean and vegetable food storage person. I do have wheat and have been thinking of the fact that there are many things that can be done with wheat.

My daughter has celiac, so eating wheat is something she cannot do without becoming very sick, for days. However, there is one way she can consume wheat: wheat grass. I have never grown wheat grass, but it has been on my mind lately. I need to learn to grow wheat grass.

My mother's family had cooked wheat for breakfast during the 30's. After supper, they sat at the dining room table and cleaned the rocks and any chaff out of the wheat. It was put in a pot with water and soaked overnight. In the morning it was heated for breakfast.

In Patchouli's thread "Unusual bread recipes," there is some discussion about soaking wheat for a couple days to help remove phytic acids which are problematic for some people. Other ideas include how sourdough helps to remove phytic acids as well, and help people digest wheat easier. https://www.homesteadingforum.org/threads/unusual-bread-recipes.2172/

I am looking for ideas, recipes, videos, links and information for using wheat. I will pull out the mimeographed handout I got from that class years ago with some recipes and ideas.
 
Last edited:
At one point I tried to buy wheat from a grain mill in central Texas at harvest time and was told that all of it was sold to China. Then I looked into making a trip to Oklahoma and make a large (ton or so) purchase with a group, of wheat right from the producer.
I ran into a couple of problems.
1. The wheat out of the field has to be cleaned of bugs and trash such as sticks, dirt etc.
2. There was no way of knowing what had been sprayed on this wheat. Was it grown for animal feed or human consumption?

I believe if I remember right the price was awesome from the growers in Oklahoma. I think it would have cost about $300 to $500 for a ton.
 
At one point I tried to buy wheat from a grain mill in central Texas at harvest time and was told that all of it was sold to China. Then I looked into making a trip to Oklahoma and make a large (ton or so) purchase with a group, of wheat right from the producer.
I ran into a couple of problems.
1. The wheat out of the field has to be cleaned of bugs and trash such as sticks, dirt etc.
2. There was no way of knowing what had been sprayed on this wheat. Was it grown for animal feed or human consumption?

I believe if I remember right the price was awesome from the growers in Oklahoma. I think it would have cost about $300 to $500 for a ton.

When I was looking to buy wheat for the first time (or second after Y2K where I really only had a couple pounds), I found a survivalist store that sold organic wheat, but it was pricey. I continued looking and found some at a local feed store. I no longer remember the price, but I think it was around $10 for 25 pound bags and I bought one bag. It was grade B, animal feed. Basically, it was not cleaned, so had dirt and chaff. I bought a bag, but wasn't thrilled. My thought was that it could be cleaned, by winnowing it in front of a fan, or however people used to separate the chaff and dirt from the grain. I kept searching for a source. I eventually found the LDS Bishop's storehouse. Things have changed over the past 10 years, and you can get #10 cans delivered in a case of 6 to your door now from the Bishop's storehouse. I like that it is canned, so protected from moisture, bugs, rodents, and other potential problems. It was a relatively good price as well, much cheaper than the organic wheat from the survival store. I do wonder how many chemicals are used in the production, but it is better than nothing.

At the Bishop's Storehouse, I had a man tell me that their LDS church ordered tons of wheat that was dropped in the church parking lot. People would fill up new garbage cans and seal them with tape. He and his family bought a certain amount. He told me they made fresh bread every week ever since, from the wheat that they scooped up decades before from the parking lot. (He told me that he made the bread, not his wife.) He told me they had so much of it, but they kept using it. For them, with that much wheat, they would have had enough wheat for their family for at least a decade, but if memory serves me right, I believe they had enough wheat to last them 3 decades.

I remember my grandfather's graineries, one full of wheat.
 
I need to learn to grow wheat grass.

I grew some this summer, just because....

It is easy. I have one of those plastic 3 drawer filing cabinet things that are sold at Wal-Mart. Drilled a hole large enough for a funnel to fit in the center of the top and then lots of holes in the top 2 drawers but not the bottom one. I put a layer of wheat seeds in one drawer and a layer of Milo in the other. I poured water through the funnel into the top drawer, it drained into the second and was caught by the third. Worked great and the goats loved my experiment. I did put a canning ring in the top drawer under the funnel to keep the water from pushing the grains against the sides of the drawer as it came down.
 
Wheat is the last thing you can buy in a large bag 25#? at the local Mormon cannery. They have lots of stuff in #10 cans.
Yes. A 25 pound bag of red wheat is currently $10 and white wheat is $12.

A few years ago you could also buy most of their products in 25 pound bags, but that option went away now. I didn't buy much food by the bag because I wanted it canned. I do have some food preps in 5 gallon buckets as well. That was one of my first ways of storing food, in 5 gallon buckets with gamma seal lids.

There are a few other places that you can buy food in 20 or 25 pound bags, and maybe even 50 pound bags, if you search out your area. I would search online and checked out all the options I could find. The Bishop's Storehouse has worked the best for me. I have gotten a few things at Costco.

There are many recommendations that suggest we store 25 pounds of wheat per person per month. That is 300 pounds of wheat for a year and is twelve 5 gallon buckets per person per year, if that is the storage method you choose to use.

https://providentliving.lds.org/bc/...eStorageCenterOrderForm-US-short.pdf?lang=eng

Over the years, and before I found them as an option, I understand that they also had other products. Someone told me they used to have pudding mix and soup mix. Maybe they had other options as well earlier. You used to be able to can your own food, but only the food you bought from them, nothing could be carried in. I did lots of that, canning in their cannery of their products. Every time I had a day off and they were open, I would go there and work on one of my food goals. On my first trip to the cannery, I canned powdered milk and black beans. I believe I have all of their products now. They are getting ready to add peanut butter and honey, but probably in plastic containers, not cans. Some of their products are now in new types of storage containers, like their potato pearls.

You also used to be able to borrow their canners, buy cans, lids, boxes and go home and can other dry foods. I only did that once, and got to can varieties of legumes they didn't carry.
 
At one point I tried to buy wheat from a grain mill in central Texas at harvest time and was told that all of it was sold to China. Then I looked into making a trip to Oklahoma and make a large (ton or so) purchase with a group, of wheat right from the producer.
I ran into a couple of problems.
1. The wheat out of the field has to be cleaned of bugs and trash such as sticks, dirt etc.
2. There was no way of knowing what had been sprayed on this wheat. Was it grown for animal feed or human consumption?

I believe if I remember right the price was awesome from the growers in Oklahoma. I think it would have cost about $300 to $500 for a ton.
The harvesting of wheat and how things happen is interesting. The first wheat that is ready for harvest is in Texas. There is a group of combiners who start harvesting in Texas and the crews harvest and move north as the season progresses. Those with wheat in Texas have the first wheat and probably get the best price for it. As the wheat is harvested further north, the prices go down. It is a supply and demand thing. By the time they get a few states north, prices are low. In places, farmers think they can do better if they save their grain for a while.

In South Dakota, there are huge grain bins that have been erected in the last decade or so. There used to be many smaller ones. Wheat farmers in places like South and North Dakota want to hang onto their wheat until the price goes back up, if they are able to. Towns and cities along railroad routes have set up big grain processing plants. Grain can be dried for storage there. The grain elevators of the past are mostly gone, and the big circular metal bins are now used more frequently. You used to see lots of silos on farms, but now, not so much.
 
barry enacted regulations that shut down most of the Mormon canneries. There may be one or two left that are willing and able to jump through all the hoops. That is why all their food is sold pre-caned rather than in bulk as it previously was. It was part of his anti-christian agenda.

I have 400# of wheat berries set aside and space prohibits any more of that product.

My wife and I are trying to keep the carbs down so sprouting would probably be best for us.
 
barry enacted regulations that shut down most of the Mormon canneries. There may be one or two left that are willing and able to jump through all the hoops. That is why all their food is sold pre-caned rather than in bulk as it previously was. It was part of his anti-christian agenda.

I have 400# of wheat berries set aside and space prohibits any more of that product.

My wife and I are trying to keep the carbs down so sprouting would probably be best for us.
I always wondered and even asked whenever I was in there. I could never really get a straight answer to my question.
 
I always wondered and even asked whenever I was in there. I could never really get a straight answer to my question.
I'm not sure that the people working the floor are aware of what happened or just don't want to complain to the public. I discussed it with the people working one time and at first they denied it and then seemed as if I was teaching them something new. It was in the news but only for a short news cycle. Like all of barry's underhanded stuff it was ignored, or misrepresented and dropped quickly.
 
I grow wheat grass regularly. I soak a handful of wheat in a mason jar for 24 hrs, drain it. Rinse it and drain it each day. On about the third day it's ready to plant. I have large round metal pans, about 3" high. I put a little dirt in the bottom, spread the wheat on that, and dirt on top. Water when dry. I keep it indoors. Then I feed it to the chickens. When my daughter is visiting, she cuts the wheat grass and puts it through a hand crank wheat grinder we bought from Amazon. And voila! What grass juice. I think it tastes disgusting, but I'm sure it's healthy. Just bought a 50lb bag of red winter wheat to plant outside for spring. Got it at the Mennonite Store for $18.00. I spend the same amount on regular wheat at our Mercantile Store down the road. Lasts a long time.
I can't imagine not using much flour. I buy it buy the 25lb bags for regular use. Bread, sweet treats, pizza crust, pasta, as a thickener for gravies....
 
I was asked once, "what can you do with wheat?"
Well the list is too long to go into here so lets just say that you can live on wheat alone. You can get your carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and mineral from wheat.
 
I always wondered and even asked whenever I was in there. I could never really get a straight answer to my question.

I don't remember exactly but it had to do with them not being a licensed commercial kitchen, food handlers licenses and such.
 
I grow wheat grass regularly. I soak a handful of wheat in a mason jar for 24 hrs, drain it. Rinse it and drain it each day. On about the third day it's ready to plant. I have large round metal pans, about 3" high. I put a little dirt in the bottom, spread the wheat on that, and dirt on top. Water when dry. I keep it indoors. Then I feed it to the chickens. When my daughter is visiting, she cuts the wheat grass and puts it through a hand crank wheat grinder we bought from Amazon. And voila! What grass juice. I think it tastes disgusting, but I'm sure it's healthy. Just bought a 50lb bag of red winter wheat to plant outside for spring. Got it at the Mennonite Store for $18.00. I spend the same amount on regular wheat at our Mercantile Store down the road. Lasts a long time.
I can't imagine not using much flour. I buy it buy the 25lb bags for regular use. Bread, sweet treats, pizza crust, pasta, as a thickener for gravies....

I don't use soil. Just flood it twice a day. The roots form a nice mat.
 
Veering off topic, but this link is supposedly good for prices now, January 2019 at the LDS Home Storage Centers.
https://providentliving.lds.org/food-storage/home-storage-center-locations-map?lang=eng

I found a website with older information (2018) about the canneries and why they stopped allowing canning.
There is other helpful information but it is not LDS church-sponsored or approved:
https://simplefamilypreparedness.com/lds-home-storage-centers-lds-canneries/
This is more like what I was told, and probably what the people who worked there were told: "The reason for change this was two-fold: (1) It was more efficient and cost effective for the LDS Church to prepackage the food and offer it for sale that way rather than supply and ship pallets of empty cans around the country, and (2) It was also more efficient and cost effective to not have to maintain the loaner can seamers that patrons could check out for free."

They said the new way was more efficient. I am not sure how that is true. When I went there, I packaged my own food, cleaned up after myself, etc. How could hiring people to do what so many people did for themselves be more efficient?
 
They do not hire people to do it. Volunteers do it, people serving missions do it. Older couples can volunteer to serve missions and their mission call may be to an area where part of the time they will serve in the home storage center. Anyone from a ward (a local LDS church) can be asked or volunteer themselves to serve at the hsc.
 
And Pres. Trump has toured the major storehouse in SLC area owned by the church and even recently met with the top leaders of the church, discussing the worldwide humanitarian aid from the church. POTUS was impressed with how the church is run. Friends may scoff, but the church is not in debt. Part of church holdings includes cattle ranches and farms of grain and produce.
 
And Pres. Trump has toured the major storehouse in SLC area owned by the church and even recently met with the top leaders of the church, discussing the worldwide humanitarian aid from the church. POTUS was impressed with how the church is run. Friends may scoff, but the church is not in debt. Part of church holdings includes cattle ranches and farms of grain and produce.
Yes, they have farms all over the country. They have an incredible welfare program. People who are unemployed or in need of food can go to the same building where the Bishops storehouse is and get food. My guess is that they are pretty busy now with the government shutdown. I was in there once, when looking for the storehouse. It was like a grocery store, but only one type of product for each selection.

They used to have a wet pack cannery that I wanted to go to. You had to sign up in advance. If you canned a product, you could purchase a certain amount of it, such as chicken, canned beans, tomatoes, pears, apples, etc. for an excellent price. The food was there, you couldn't bring anything in. I never could get on the schedule. You had to be there by 4 in the afternoon, and I could never make that during the school year. That was closed as well.
 
Almost 40 years ago I took a food storage class and the base food in that class was wheat. Powdered milk, salt, and oil were also on the list, but wheat was the mainstay for many years for food storage. There are people who have 100's if not 1000's of pounds of it stored!

I have wheat. When did I last use any of it? Years! But I have! Now I want to explore using it again.

I once heard a young married woman say, "If food storage is about wheat, I will never have food storage." I didn't know her and have no idea of her background. I get her sentiment about wheat! But wheat is inexpensive and easy to store, if packaged well and stored well.

There are all kinds of things that can be done with wheat, but I will not limit myself to wheat. I have become more of a bean and vegetable food storage person. I do have wheat and have been thinking of the fact that there are many things that can be done with wheat.

My daughter has celiac, so eating wheat is something she cannot do without becoming very sick, for days. However, there is one way she can consume wheat: wheat grass. I have never grown wheat grass, but it has been on my mind lately. I need to learn to grow wheat grass.

My mother's family had cooked wheat for breakfast during the 30's. After supper, they sat at the dining room table and cleaned the rocks and any chaff out of the wheat. It was put in a pot with water and soaked overnight. In the morning it was heated for breakfast.

In Patchouli's thread "Unusual bread recipes," there is some discussion about soaking wheat for a couple days to help remove phytic acids which are problematic for some people. Other ideas include how sourdough helps to remove phytic acids as well, and help people digest wheat easier. https://www.homesteadingforum.org/threads/unusual-bread-recipes.2172/

I am looking for ideas, recipes, videos, links and information for using wheat. I will pull out the mimeographed handout I got from that class years ago with some recipes and ideas.

Weedy sweety I don't do raw wheat at all. i'd have to learn and long as King Aurthur has flour I'll stick to that.
 
Weedy sweety I don't do raw wheat at all. i'd have to learn and long as King Aurthur has flour I'll stick to that.
I totally understand. I know there are many people who can't even eat it. I also know that wheat, as well as many other foods, causes inflammation that contributes to arthritis and other health problems. I know that diabetics have to be very careful about carbs, and wheat is carbs unless it is sprouted or grown into grass.
 
Yes, they have farms all over the country. They have an incredible welfare program. People who are unemployed or in need of food can go to the same building where the Bishops storehouse is and get food. My guess is that they are pretty busy now with the government shutdown. I was in there once, when looking for the storehouse. It was like a grocery store, but only one type of product for each selection.

They used to have a wet pack cannery that I wanted to go to. You had to sign up in advance. If you canned a product, you could purchase a certain amount of it, such as chicken, canned beans, tomatoes, pears, apples, etc. for an excellent price. The food was there, you couldn't bring anything in. I never could get on the schedule. You had to be there by 4 in the afternoon, and I could never make that during the school year. That was closed as well.
You're right about the free food. My first time there I entered the wrong door and almost had to beat the gal with a stick to keep her from giving me free food. Finally I said, I'm obese I'll be skinny before I ever beg for food. I'm looking for the place to buy food.
 
You're right about the free food. My first time there I entered the wrong door and almost had to beat the gal with a stick to keep her from giving me free food. Finally I said, I'm obese I'll be skinny before I ever beg for food. I'm looking for the place to buy food.
I do like that they take care of their own by providing real food, rather than food stamps or debit cards that can be abused.

I was thinking about the food from the list for food storage at the Home Storage Center (Bishops storehouse). It is food insurance, but the choices are mostly carbs. I worked to get a good base of food, based on their list as well as lists developed by others. It has a long storage life, and that is one reason to have it. I have more variety now, than what is on their list, but this was the base that I developed first. I have zero regrets building up that base, but know that eating things like rice is very low on my food choice.

The challenge for me, and my guess many others is that I like fresh food, such as salads. I cannot store that, but I can store the seeds for that.

BTW, they used to have other foods that could be purchased by the case, and some things individually, such as canned pears, jellies, tomato soup, mushroom soup and others. I think logan berry jelly was one of the options once. I always purchased those optional foods when the option was available. I wish they had more of those options available on a regular basis. I am glad to see honey and peanut butter on the list as ongoing available items.
 
I have less than 30 pounds of wheat in the house, none in storage.
I am big on beans & rice. Beans are easy to replace after the Fall & white potatoes will replace wheat as flour.
POtatoes are easier to grow & much easier to process.
But back to the wheat, I agree it is easy to store & can by used for a lot of foods.
The best is a Hamburger or sandwich, pan cakes.
 
Wheat is easy to store and stores very well. You have to grind it to make flour but you sprout it to get the vitamins and minerals out of it. Combined with beans or nuts you can get complete proteins. You only need wheat, water and a bit of salt to make bread that is good to eat and good for you. You don't have to store yeast because you can make a sourdough starter with flour and water.
I am convinced that anything you can make with flour and yeast or baking powder can be made with sourdough.
A complete and satisfying meal can be made with sourdough bread products, wheat sprouts and a good bean or pea soup. The drawback is that unless you are active there are a lot of calories in the meal. If you are prone to weight gain I would recommend meats and veggies over the bread and soup.
 
Wheat is easy to store and stores very well. You have to grind it to make flour but you sprout it to get the vitamins and minerals out of it. Combined with beans or nuts you can get complete proteins. You only need wheat, water and a bit of salt to make bread that is good to eat and good for you. You don't have to store yeast because you can make a sourdough starter with flour and water.
I am convinced that anything you can make with flour and yeast or baking powder can be made with sourdough.
A complete and satisfying meal can be made with sourdough bread products, wheat sprouts and a good bean or pea soup. The drawback is that unless you are active there are a lot of calories in the meal. If you are prone to weight gain I would recommend meats and veggies over the bread and soup.
Wheat could really potentially prevent starvation in a SHTF situation. It has a very long shelf life. The cans from the LDS say shelf life of 30 years. It could probably really last much longer. Wheat has been found in caves in ceramic jars that was 1000's of years old and still sprouted. That means that it is still potentially living. It is inexpensive to purchase now.

For $120 you can have a year's supply of red wheat, or for $144, a year's supply of white wheat for one person, 300 pounds. If that is too much money, my method is to buy a little every pay day, or when I am able to. It takes a while, but before you know it, you can have quite a stock pile. If you live close to an LDS center, you could pick up a can or bag here and there. $10 or $12 a 25 pound bag (depending on red or white) or $3.50 or $3,75 a 5.5 pound can. In the Denver area, the LDS center is just a couple blocks off of I-70, and that is on the way to or from DIA (airport) from many parts of the state.

I agree that sourdough can be used to make just about anything that can be made with yeast or baking soda. One way that I look at it is this: if there were limited resources in a SHTF situation, wheat can fill in the gap. So will rice, beans, oatmeal, powdered milk and other long term shelf stable foods. Other foods that are not edible by themselves but can make other foods edible include yeast, salt, sugar, baking powder and baking soda, vanilla, seasonings, spices and more.

There is a way to make yeast, and I will look for information about that. From what I have read, wheat is much more digestible when made with sourdough.

I am big on beans & rice. Beans are easy to replace after the Fall & white potatoes will replace wheat as flour.
Potatoes are easier to grow & much easier to process.

I have had great luck growing potatoes, but beans, not so much. I know that rice is almost impossible unless you live in the right climate and have some expertise. I will leave it up to the experts. I agree that potatoes have many uses and can replace wheat, especially for people who cannot handle wheat processing or health wise or who run out. I have seen recipes that call for potato flour. I am sure it can be made, but may be a bit of work.
 
The only problem with non wheat flours is that they don't make good breads. You need gluten to do that. Most recipes that use oat, potato, rice or buckwheat have wheat flour added to them to help hold it together. Even my "only REAL cookie in the world" recipe has wheat flour to bind the oats and nuts together. ;)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top