The different kinds of wheat berries

[ksalvagno]

what are the different kinds of wheat berries to buy and what would you use them for? I know there is winter red wheat and spring soft wheat but what do you use each for? And if you want to store some, which ones would you want to have on hand?

 

[dragonlaurel]

The "soft" wheats are lower in gluten and is used for making pasta and other stuff that doesn't need to rise much. The "hard" wheats are for usually for bread flour. I would want some of each and a good grinder. It's up to you about electric or manual.

 

[freemotion]

Yup, hards for bread. Softs for pastry, too, like biscuits, pancakes, waffles, pie crust, fritter batter, cookies, etc. I love kamut, which seems to behave more like a pastry flour. I mix it with whatever I'm using....kamut and hard red for pizza dough, kamut and soft white for pie crust, kamut by itself for pasta (handle the noodles with care, as they are very fragile until cooked if made with kamut...but delicious!)

I've even made brownies with freshly ground soft white wheat and no one was the wiser. It is very different from storebought. You won't regret it.

How much to get of each depends on what you do more of. Right now I use much more soft white and kamut, but hope to make all or most of our bread this winter, so we will see. We still don't use much wheat in our diet, but I do like it. The two of us together probably use....um....less than a pound a week, maybe as much as two if it is a big sandwich-eating week for some reason. No kids here, though.

Ooooo, lasagna with homemade noodles! Turkey pot pie with biscuit topping! Peach pie with whole wheat crust!

 

[ksalvagno]

Ok, thanks. We have some hard red winter wheat but wanted to get something else since we found out that the hard red really is for bread making. We had also read that wheat was going up so we wanted to stock up and be ready to make our own breads and stuff.

 

[Icu4dzs]

Every thing written here so far sounds like good information. There is Durham wheat, hard red winter and soft white spring wheat. You can grind about any grain you want in your grinder and make bread so don't forget to "think outside the box".

Since I bake a loaf of bread by weight not by volume of wheat, I have found that four ounces for a starter and eighteen ounces for a the remainder will make a standard loaf which can feed you for as long as you can stretch it. I grind my own so it is more time consuming but the rewards are immense.

Based on the above weights, if you are feeding one or two, then about 500 lbs of wheat wil make about 363 loaves of bread. This then can feed one or two for a year.
YMMV
Hope this helps
Trim sends

 

[miss_thenorth]

What about this? soft winter wheat? Good deal or not. We had intentions of getting a grinder anyways...

http://chatham-kent.kijiji.ca/c-pet...on-soft-white-winter-wheat-W0QQAdIdZ226984205

 

[Icu4dzs]

What about this? soft winter wheat? Good deal or not. We had intentions of getting a grinder anyways...

http://chatham-kent.kijiji.ca/c-pet...on-soft-white-winter-wheat-W0QQAdIdZ226984205

50 Bushels of common soft white winter wheat (AC Mountain) cleaned untreated, sell as organic or conventional $15/bushel

Price is dependent on a number of parameters. Location is key.
When I first moved to South Dakota I was pretty broke so I thought about what would stretch my money the farthest. I went to the Co-Op elevator and had them fill the back of my p/u truck with wheat. Turns out I got nearly 2000 lbs for about $135. (of course I had not anticipated what I was going to do with it once I got home. Took me 2 days and 2 boxes of plastic garbage bags and all the boxes I could find to deal with the problem).

So if you figure 53 lbs per bushel I paid about $3.60/bushel for it and that is with me transporting it. If the guy selling the 50 bushel at $15/bushel you are looking at $750 plus shipping if my calculations are right. That seems a bit spendy to me.

OTR truckers charge about $3/loaded mile now. If you figure my short bed truck carried 38 bushel in it, a full size p/u truck bed would easily carry 50 bushel. Cost of fuel, and your time has to be considered.

Guess I would say go to the local grain elevator in or near your town and ask their price. You may be more satisfied with the result. BUT, in either case have a plan all laid out for what you are going to do with the wheat once you get it. If it is already in 50 lb bags then you are talking about 50 bags. Storing it can be tricky but as long as it is dry, it will store indefinitely. (At least the Pharoah's burial team proved that)

No matter what, buying grains NOW will be a lot cheaper than if something goes sour in our economy and you want to make your move then...it might be too late!

Best
Trim sends

 

[miss_thenorth]

Well, I wasn't plannng on getting all 50 bushels. But what about soft winter wheat... what is that good for, since all I do is mainly bake bread and muffins and such. And it is being sold where my inlaws live, and we are down there quite often anyways.

 

[ORChick]

There is also a hard white wheat. At the market you might find this as King Arthur's brand white whole wheat flour. It is milder than the red wheat. I just got a grain grinder a few months ago, and have hard white wheat as well as soft white wheat (and a very small bit of hard red, as that is all I could get locally to first try the grinder). I use the hard wheat for bread - DH doesn't really like whole wheat, but the white wheat (especially freshly ground) goes over better with him. The soft wheat doesn't have as much gluten, so is better for pastries or biscuits - or muffins and quick breads, raised withed baking powder.

 

[Pirtykitty]

I was able to pick up 45 pounds of soft white wheat today at the Herietage farm out side of Waco.. it's in a 5 gallon bucket. it ran me 50.00... I hope that was a good deal..