What About Wheat for Food Storage?

It is recommended that you have at least 300 pounds of wheat per person for a one year supply of basic wheat grains.

*There are six major classes of wheat listed below.

Hard Wheat

Hard red winter wheat is a high protein wheat used mostly for breads and all-purpose flour and as an adjunct in other flours to increase protein content. This class of wheat accounts for more than 40% of the U.S. wheat crop and half of U.S. wheat exports.

Durum wheat is a spring wheat, and may be either white or red. It is the hardest of all U.S. wheat, offers both high protein and high gluten content, and used to make the semolina flour used for premium pasta products and some Mediterranean breads.

Hard red spring wheat is the highest protein wheat, and is used for bread, hard baked goods, all-purpose flour, and flour blends.

Hard white wheat is medium protein grain that is closely related to red wheat except for color, in milling and baking qualities. However, it offers a milder, sweeter flavor, and is used in yeast breads, hard rolls, bulgur, tortillas, oriental noodles, whole wheat and all-purpose flowers, and used in brewing. It is the newest class of wheat to be grown in the United States.

Soft Wheat

Soft red winter wheat has a low to medium protein content, and is used for breads and blending. It is used to make cookies, cakes, donuts, and other fine pastries as well as flat breads, and crackers.

Soft white wheat is a low protein wheat, but offers high yields to growers. It provides a whiter product for high quality cakes, crackers, cookies, pastries, and Asian-style noodles (bakery products other than breads), and is ideally suited to Middle Eastern flatbreads.

*For more information: http://www.gramene.org/species/triticum/wheat_intro.html

Feed Wheat, what about it?

Feed Wheat – is wheat normally used for livestock feeding. A very valid question was asked about if humans can (and I would add, or should) consume Feed Wheat.

Yes humans can consume feed wheat. They can also consume dog food and pig food and other animal foods, however would you really want to? I do not think the lower cost reduction of animal feeds, (which often are only very slightly less expensive) justifies the trade out of high quality enriched foods. The drop in food cost in my mind does not outweigh the drop in food quality and lower protein percentages. However, decide for yourself. You can locate feed wheat at most animal feed stores for farm animals.

This being said, some brave souls will continue to eat feed wheat and dog food during emergencies. And no they will not die. After all, in the early 60’s many hippies were surviving on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and our society was criticizing them as ‘heading for the malnutrition lines.

We laughed at them then, but life was sustained. Their diets may have violated the norms of a good balanced diet, however we learned that living on limited basics can still sustain life and not bring about the ‘end as we know it’.