What You Should Know About Wheat

by Jonathan Hunt
0ver the past couple of weeks I've had several readers ask where I buy wheat for storage and how I grind it for use. Good questions and I'm sure more than a few readers would like to know the answer.


If you've been reading this blog for a while you probably already know wheat is a staple of my food storage program, along with beans, corn, rice, honey, salt, powdered milk, spices, canned fruits, vegetables and meat.


Yet wheat seems to be the sticking point for many survivalists. They don't know where to buy, how to store or use this wonderful grain, to make flour for leavened, flat and steamed breads, biscuits, cookies, cakes, breakfast cereal, pasta, noodles, beer and other alcoholic beverages, or even biofuels.


I buy the bulk of my wheat grain at the local Farmers Co-Op. This is the same grain that is sold for animal feed. I've been using this product for several years with no ominous effects. Yet most of you will balk at the thought of eating animal feed.


Never buy "seed" grain for human consumption, seed grain is often treated with insecticides and fungicides. Seed grain wasn't intended to be eaten but planted. Buy untreated whole grain sold as "feed" that was meant to be eaten.


Look for "field run grain" it's cheaper and because of fewer processing steps it is less likely to be infected with mold or contaminated. Field run will have dirt and detritus that will need to be removed before use, but cleaning wheat isn't a big deal.


First sort the grain by laying it out on a clean surface and pick out any chunks of dirt, rocks or darker grain, after sorting you need to wash the grain. Place the grain on a sifter or screen and pour clean water over it until the water coming out the bottom is as clean as that being poured in from the top.


After cleaning the grain you'll need to dry it before grinding. Pour the grain into a strainer and set it aside for about ten minutes, after it stops dripping spread it out on a cookie sheet about ¼ inch deep, heat in oven at 180° degrees occasionally stirring until dry. Drying usually takes about an hour, if takes longer that's fine, just make sure it doesn't burn.


Or, if you prefer you can dry it outside under the sun, this is better and cheaper but is dependant on the weather and time of day and year. Just spread the grain out in a thin layer on newspaper or other suitable material in direct sunlight. A solar oven could also be used, but I've never tried this method myself.


After cleaning and drying it's time to start cranking the grinder (you do have a grinder don't you) a lot of people are surprised to learn that some of the meal comes out perfectly fine the first time through, while other parts remain coarse and need to be reground several times.


One way to make grinding easier is to use a grinding screen to sift out the finer flour while leaving the larger pieces of grain behind. The grinding screen is simply a four sided box with sides but no top and a bottom made of nylon window screen from the hardware store. Mine is 15" X 12" inches with sides made of ¾ inch by 3-1/2 wood.


Cut the wood to length and nail or screw the pieces together. Lay the screen out on a hard surface, sit the box down flat on top of the screen and cut to fit with an utility knife. Turn the box over and tack the screen to the box with several thumbtacks or small nails to hold the screen in place.


Take all purpose cement from the pluming department of the hardware store, and spread generously around the rim of the box over the edge of the screen forming a permanent seal between the wood and the screen.


When grinding place a section of newspaper under the grinder head and set the box on top. Grind as normal but this time after each pass through the grinder, shake the finer meal onto the newspaper and transfer into a bowl.


Pour the coarser meal back into the grinder and regrind repeating until reaching the desired constancy. This saves running the finer mill back through the mill, making, grinding easier and quicker.