I grew up in Utah, with the demographics you probably immediately thought of. Most are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and are counseled to have a years supply of food. Most hear this and get buckets and buckets of wheat. Then they don’t know what to do with it. Growing up, my mom was an expert, and people would come to her and ask, what can I make with my food storage wheat?
I learned a lot from my parents, who decided they didn’t want anything in their storage they didn’t know how to use, or that they didn’t plan to use, generally speaking. I learned most of these uses from my mom.
Make Flour from Wheat
This will sound really obvious, but you can grind it into flour- from this you can make pasta, bread, cake, and literally anything you’d use with flour. It isn’t your enriched bleached flour, but it is good. Also, you’ll need a good grinder in order to get really fine flour. I’ve tried flour from a course grinder, and I actually like bread with course flour, but I don’t like it in anything else. Is it hard to grind wheat into flour? Yes and no. The finer the grind, the harder it is to do, which is why flour mills stayed in business. Luckily, there are electric versions now. The grinder below is what my mom and I uses to make flour, and does really well for one family.
Make Cracked Wheat Cereal:
Cracked Wheat is a type of hot breakfast cereal. It’s less controversial than grits, but some people classify this a cheap orphan cereal. I like it. This is wheat that is a really coarsely ground. It’s called cracked wheat, because of this course grind. My mother, growing up, used to make this for us kids. It’s somewhere between oatmeal and grits, but closer to a steel cut oatmeal both in flavor and texture. We would eat this as kids with milk and brown sugar. It’s a really simple thing to make, and it isn’t hard to get your hand grinder out and grind out enough for your family real quick. My mother did it for us as kids, and still does it today. For herself. I make my own breakfasts now. My mom used a basic hand crank grinder for the course grind. It is also nice to have the hand crank option in a no electricity situation.
Cracked Wheat Recipe:
- 3 parts water to 1 part cracked wheat.
- Simmer for 15 minutes.
- Cover and let it sit for 5-10 minutes
- Season with sugar, brown sugar, and add milk if you like milk with your oatmeal.
A Wheat Crop
You can plant your wheat and grow wheat. I’m not a professional wheat farmer, but my family has dabbled. It started when one year we had planted our garden more efficiently than previously and there was a big empty row. Rather than running to the store for more seeds, or asking my mom what should go there, my dad put in a row of wheat. It sprouted and did surprisingly well. We don’t live in the Midwest. We’re not one of the “amber waves of grain” states. It still grew pretty well. The only challenge with it was that it brought in mice, something we hadn’t had a problem with at all before. My brothers and I got to have a hay-day making and playing with all different types of mouse traps, but they did eat up a good amount of the crop.
Wheat Grass:
What else can I do with wheat storage? There is a green option available as well. This option is really unique. Wheat grass is extremely healthy, but in my opinion tastes like if kale had excrement. Health gurus really love this stuff though. Essentially wheat grass is wheat sprouts that are juiced or blended into a green smoothie, and then you drink it. Because of its really great health benefits, its a great thing to experiment with and to know how to do, just in case you’re in a SHTF scenario and you need more vitamins and minerals. This will do it for you.
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