Wheat and Grinders – Just My Opinion

A reader asked about my favorite types of wheat. I started to write the post and then thought I would just add some links from previous wheat posts I’ve done.

Before I get into the depths of this post, I want to say a couple of things:

• Homemade bread is amazing and it doesn’t matter if you’re using storebought flour or if you’re grinding your own wheat berries.
• Since grinding your own includes the WHOLE wheat berry, it is supposedly a bit more healthy but honestly, at what point does bread become not so healthy . . one slice, five slices, the whole loaf? I’m going with “the whole loaf”. 🙂
• When making bread from home ground wheat, it has to be a wet dough because the freshly ground flour absorbs a lot of water and will be dry if the dough doesn’t start out wet. I cannot stand to knead “wet dough” by hand, though I do love kneading bread by hand. 100% whole wheat dough always gets kneaded by the mixer but any other dough, I knead by hand.
• There is a bit of a learning curve but if you’re familiar with making bread, after a couple of loaves, you’ll feel totally confident and produce an amazing loaf of whole wheat bread.

Yesterday I paid .99/pound for prairie gold wheat berries and .89/pound for hard red berries for Chad. I bought them at the Mennonite store. I thought the price was a bit high but when I checked the sources where I usually order wheat, the prices are better at the local store than I’m finding other places. I might could get a better deal from them ordering a whole bag (these had been put up in 5 – 8 pound bags).

If there’s a Whole Foods type store near you, they often have a variety of wheat berries. Stores like Natural Grocer will have small packages (Bob’s Red Mill and others).

Here are some blog posts you might read if you’re interested:

Wheat and Grinders (2020)
Wheat and More Wheat (2008) The first line cracked me up. Little did I know what things would be like in 2022.

There are quite a few posts that mention wheat, ancient grains, grinders, whole wheat bread, etc. If these two linked posts don’t provide enough info, please type in “wheat” or “hard red wheat” or “wheat grinders” in the search box near the bottom right.

You’re always welcome to ask me questions. I’m no expert but I manage to make a decent loaf of whole wheat bread.