WHEAT - The staff of life

I've just returned from another busy day serving at the Bishop's Storehouse/Home Storage Center (cannery) in Worcester. Because everyone has been hearing about the price of wheat/flour rising there has been a run on wheat at the cannery. We actually ran out of wheat two weeks ago but two shipments were just delivered this week so now we are stocked (at least for the next two weeks!). People are buying wheat and other food storage items by thousand pound loads.

Someone asked me today - what do you do with wheat? They didn't realize that white flour is the very processed version of basic whole wheat grain. The reason our church leaders encourage us to store whole wheat grain (not already ground into flour) is that as a whole grain, kept under proper storage conditions, the wheat grain will store indefinitely with a minimal loss of nutritional value. Of course, we do need to know how to use the wheat we have stored if and when the time comes that we need to rely upon it for sustenance. Therefore we should be using whole grain wheat as part of our normal diet.

What can you do with wheat besides grind it and bake bread? Well, you can boil or steam it up and use it in casseroles in place of or in addition to ground meat. You can also crack it and steam it to eat as breakfast cereal. The ground whole wheat flour can be milled coarse or fine and used to bake not only bread but cookies, cakes, muffins, pancakes, etc. In other words, wherever you would use flour you can use freshly ground whole wheat flour! Wheat can also be sprouted and eaten as sprouts in salads, etc. Wheat can even be popped like corn (it takes a little more work than popping corn and DON'T try to use the microwave!). If you are really enthusiastic, after grinding the wheat into flour you can go through the very labor intensive process of washing away everything but the gluten. Then season it up and use the gluten as you would a meat product. (Yes, I have actually done this and Yes, my boys ate it and knew what they were eating!)

FYI - here are some facts about the nutritional value of Hard Red Winter Wheat (the variety the church sells through it's canneries):

100 grams (about 2/3 cup) contains about 12.6 grams of protein, 1.5 grams total fat (unsaturated), 0 grams of cholesterol, 71 grams of carbohydrates, 12.2 grams of dietary fiber, and 3.2 mg of iron.

Let's compare this to 100 grams (also about 2/3 cup) of cooked, diced white meat chicken breast: 31 grams protein, 4 grams total fat (1 gram saturated), 85 mg cholesterol, 0 grams carbohydrates, 0 grams dietary fiber, and 1 mg of iron.

Have I convinced you to start using the wheat stored in your basement? If you don't have any stored, are you convinced to get some?

1. inspired counsel from church leaders
2. farmers
3. wheat, rice, oats and beans
(okay I know that's really 3 extra things but.....)