Using Up Hard Red Wheat Supplies

When I first started storing food 30+ years ago, I bought hard red wheat because it was the only option.  About ten years later, I started hearing about this great new wheat, white wheat, and I had the opportunity to get some.  As mentioned previously on the blog, white wheat is generally favored, especially by younger generations, over red wheat.  Many of the die-hard purist food storage women, mostly in at least their seventies by now, still stand by red wheat as being the only true wheat to store, insisting that the flavor is just fine (those old taste buds may not be able to tell the difference anymore, and it may just be what they are used to) and that red wheat is more nutritious.  Well, that is true.  Red wheat has slightly more protein than white wheat.  But the difference is negligible, and if it makes a difference in whether people eat more whole wheat or opt for something less offensive, like white flour, then it isn't even worth discussing.

For those who have adopted white wheat wholeheartedly, the problem remains of what to do with the red wheat, which is no longer so desirable to use.  Of course you can always hang onto it and use it for trade or you can sell it.  But beyond that, what to do?

Keep in mind something that my husband and I often heard in our off-grid medicine classes and which we see in the disaster medicine books:  "The solution to pollution is dilution."  While the doctors are usually referring to some kind of poisoning, the same kind of applies to red wheat.  One way to dilute it is by working a little into your bread.  My bread recipe calls for almost nine cups of wheat to make three loaves of bread.  In this situation, I can substitute one cup of red wheat flour for one cup of white wheat flour and no one will be the wiser.

Sometimes the solution is to overwhelm the taste buds.  I guarantee that no one will notice if you make a batch of chocolate chip cookies with red wheat flour instead of white.  They'll just be really ecstatic to have chocolate chip cookies.  (You have stored chocolate chips, right?)

Another way to overwhelm the slightly bitter taste of red wheat is with seasonings.  Use boiled red wheat berries or cracked red wheat to extend hamburger when making meatballs, taco filling, or sloppy joes.

You can also use red wheat to make wheat sprouts.  The sprouting process actually produces sugars in the wheat sprouts, so they no longer taste bitter at all.  You get healthy sprouts loaded with vitamins that taste great in soups.  Let the sprouts grow a little longer and you'll have wheat grass for smoothies or sandwiches.  Let them grow even longer (with frequent rinsing and draining), and you'll have fodder for feeding small livestock. 

Finally, you can also use red wheat to make your own malt vinegar.  It's a time-intensive process, but not labor-intensive.  The whole process is the topic of a future post, already written but scheduled for December.

Links to related posts:
Making Whole Wheat Bread
Sprouting Wheat
Using Wheat Berries

20 december 2019