Wonderful Wheat Wednesday: Wheat Grinders & Resources

Wheat Grinders and Resources:

Wheat Grinders:  to grind your wheat into flour or cracked wheat a grain mill is the way to go.  In choosing a grain mill there are many things to consider:

1. How often will it be used and for what?  Will it be used for flour only, for cracked wheat too?  For wheat only, or for beans, corn, nuts, spices, etc.?  Some grinders will only grind to a flour and only wheat, others have a range of grinding from cracked to fine flour.  Some only grind wheat, others will grind beans, legumes, corn, oats, and more (some even have meat grinding attachments!)
2. Hand or electric?  Most models are either one or the other, though there are a few that can go from being a hand to being an electric grinder.  Remember if you will be grinding a lot, a hand grinder’s power source is YOU (or other family members) so keep that in mind—most hand grinders take 2-4 minutes to grind 1 cup of flour.  Whereas electric ones can grind a cup in less than a minute (even 30 seconds or less!)
3. Grinders are loud!  Especially electric grinders.  Some people don’t mind the noise because they are only grinding for a few minutes a day, others use their grinders in the garage or outside to avoid the noise.  Some of the newer grinders claim to be quieter, but remember quieter just means in comparison to other brands or years ago models.  But if noise is an issue for you, you may want to invest in the “quieter” brands.
4. When you purchase a grinder, how and where are you going to store it?  Depending on the dimensions of your grinder, it may or may not fit where you plan it too.  Also, hand grinders usually require a good countertop edge or table edge to clamp to, if your countertops/tabletops are rounded they may not fit snuggly and therefore wobble or move around as you grind.
5. Rollers are not grinders.  A grain roller basically flattens the grain, it doesn’t grind it.  (think of rolled oats)  If you want rolled grains for cereals, etc. you may want a roller.
6. www.providentliving.org has some tips on choosing and purchasing a grain mill.  They suggest things like:  stoneless, metal or plastic casings, recommended by others, etc.

RESOURCES:  Some great websites and other resources on using wheat, or other food storage:  (these, except for provident living, are not endorsed by the church, they are just websites I found helpful and/or interesting, I hope this helps as you strive to be obedient to the prophets in getting your food and other storage)

1.  www.providentliving.org (lds.org, this is the church’s website, provides prophetic counsel on food storage, choosing a family grain mill, preparedness, job skills and more!)  

2.  http://pgward.org/ep/ (wonderful site!  Very informative on many aspects of emergency preparedness, food storage, recipes and more)

3.  www.everydayfoodstorage.net (this sister has a great website!  Recipes galore on using your food storage, I have tried some and they are great!!!  Some of the recipes she uses are the same as recipes from the below mentioned “New Ideas for cooking with basic food storage”, but she also has a lot of other delicious recipes on her website.  She also has a wonderful cookbook:  “I Can’t Believe It’s Food Storage”  with lots of ideas/recipes on using products the cannery sells)

4.  www.safelygatheredin.blogspot.com  (these women have great tutorials, recipes and ideas, the recipes are yummy too!  A main feature of their recipes is that the ingredients are all shelf-stable items or at least they are before opening/cooking—so these would be great recipes for camping trips, 72 hour kits and just times when you don’t have electricity)

5.  www.theideadoor.com (a website that includes lots of ideas for various things, but under the food storage section, there are two cookbooks that use food storage:  “Home Storage Cookbook” and “New Ideas for cooking with basic food storage “also called the “Bishops Storehouse Cookbook” (this one is listed under recipes, the home storage cookbook is listed just above the recipes tab)  I’ve not found copyrights or authors on these yet, but thought I’d share the link to get to them.)

6.  If you want to completely replace meat using wheat gluten, the book “Amazing Wheat” by Learta Moulton is a book that shows how, and gives recipes on using wheat gluten.

Cost effectiveness of Using wheat:

As of 9/2010:  1 can of wheat (5.8 lbs) cost 2.60.  This makes about 5.8 lbs of flour,   Store bought whole wheat flour costs 2.62+ for 5 lbs, so a little savings doing it at home.  Cracking the wheat to use in place of or in extension to ground meats:  current per pound pricing for meat ranges from $2 for the most fat content to $4+ for the least fat content.  There are 11-13 cups of wheat per can.  Using 11 cups, it costs $.24 per cup of wheat.  If you use 2 cups in place of 1 lb of meat you are paying less than 50 cents (even less since 1 c of wheat makes more than 1 c cooked.)  Also, using wheat in place of rice, it may save you money as well.  Not to mention that wheat can help you feel fuller, so you won’t eat as much.  Making wheat sausage might cost you maybe 65 cents a pound (once you figure in all the ingredients including spices).

Coming up next:  recipes!  The last few weeks and today have been mostly about how to use wheat, and general information about it.  In the next few weeks I will be sharing some recipes that use wheat--yeah!