What to do with wheat?

Even a hand grinder is tedious for real baking.  I think a mill stone would be okay for emergencies, but probably a real pain in the butt otherwise.   Don't forget if you all of a sudden start feeding your family freshly ground wheat EVEN IF YOU CURRENTLY EAT WHOLE WHEAT PRODUCTS, you will need a huge supply of Immodium AD.  Huge.  It takes some getting used to, so start baking with it now. 

My electric mill can grind the wheat flour much finer than my hand-cranked grinder. I am thinking about buying a better quality hand-cranked model from lehman's:



I bought a really good book back in 1999 called Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook written by James Talmage Stevens. After reading through Stevens book, I was convinced that wheat would be a good thing to store and use for emergencies. This is what Stevens said in his book, With such a wide range of uses, wheat is considered by many experts to be one of the most basic food storage items. 

sicmom, I agree with what you said about the Immodium Ad. Wheat needs to be gradually added to the diet.

I think what sicmom was trying to say is, if you introduce 100 % whole wheat into the diet, too much and too fast, it can cause gastrointestinal problems, resulting in diarrhea. Just intoduce it gradually into the diet, and you should not have any problems. 

Mountainwinds-

When my wife makes pancakes from fresh ground whole wheat, I take them with me to work and eat them like bread all day long.

I am not a chef, but the pancakes really taste better if freshly ground from whole wheat.

Please post the breadstick and roll recipe. 

Whole wheat rolls

One other quick note, hard WHITE wheat makes baked goods that are much less dense (and I think taste better) than hard RED wheat.   If your family is used to refined flours, there will be less of a taste shock if you buy the hard white wheat. 

Ravendawn,

I LOVE sourdough bread! Hubby isn't crazy about it. You can make your own starter or purchase commercial sourdough starters and just have to tend them.

Each time you bake, you use part of your starter to build a "sponge" and feed the remaining starter so it's ready for the next baking.

I haven't done it in quite awhile so someone else can probably explain it better. You can make oodles of wonderful baked goods with sourdough starter.

Think each starter will develop it's own unique flavor over time, regardless of whether you begin with commercial starter or not.

MW,

Have you bought that wheat grinder yet?

I bought the hand grinder that is pictured above, got it the other day. I also bought wood (1 1/2 cords), just in case I run out of fuel, and I have a kerosene burner as well. I have a link somewhere for outdoor bread making, but I have to find it. I believe it is on the other computer. I will post it when I get a chance. Someone may have already posted it on this thread.