A friend visited the Gulch a few days ago while passing through, and came bearing gifts – among which was a quantity of ground wheat flour and another of wheat berries.
Which means I can go back to adulterating my white bread with some taste for a while.
One cup of wheat flour roughens the texture somewhat and improves the taste substantially in my opinion, without negatively affecting the rise the way trying to bake a whole wheat loaf can (and in my case, invariably does.)
A few years ago Landlady brought up a grain mill which allowed me to start using these two buckets of wheat berries that had been around here for going on fifteen years, and once I learned the proper proportions to use in the dough I really enjoyed the result – Until I ran out, and learned that the price of wheat berries is ridiculously out of my budget, and went back to eating white bread. Now thanks to my generous friend I can enjoy more tasty bread for a while.
It’s amazing what a little change will do to the taste of something like bread.
The wheat berries were still good after fifteen years? Wow. Was this in a fancy oxygen-free container or an ordinary bucket or something else?
I’ve been using 50/50 whole wheat/bread flour with good results.
Nah, just food buckets with spin-on lids. They say wheat berries will stay good indefinitely as long as you keep them dry. Don’t know how true that is, but these were perfectly fine after really long storage.
What I don’t understand is – they’re just unground wheat, right? And flour is ground and processed wheat. So how come the berries cost so damned much more than flour?
They’re probably arti$anal or sumthin’. No idea.
Thanks for the reply.
How long will a bucket of berries last you? I’m thinking what with all the SHTF chatter about Russia/Ukraine/India wheat, a bit of stockpiling ain’t a bad idea.
Do you prefer red wheat berries, or white wheat berries?
Just go to the feed store and buy field run wheat. Not wheat seed , but field run with no additives. I have a few thousand pounds of these vacuum packed in mylar with oxy absorbers and buckets. Only $18 for fifty lb bag. (Back when I bought wheat in 2009) now days probably much more.
Or much more expensive at the emergency essential type supplier.
Or even better , find a farmer that will sell some straight out of the field