sprouting hard red wheat
 

I found this link on here not too long ago
http://www.kurtsaxon.com/foods002.htm

and I decided I wanted to try it. It shows you how to sprout wheat to make a breakfast which I assume will be similar to cream of wheat.

Tomorrow is the second morning (where you actually get to start eating the wheat) and I'm excited to try it. We have one set of jars ready and we could see that they were sprouting already this morning.

I couldn't bring myself to drink the water from the soaking. I tasted just a little bit of it and couldn't stomach it. Hopefully that isn't a pre-cursor to tomorrow's breakfast!


If I find that I have a hard time stomaching it and not wanting to eat it every morning at least I will know how to sprout it if I find I have no other choice. Plus there is always porridge to fall back on, our current breakfast of choice!

Big Country

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Sprouts are good on a salad or in a stir fry, but don't sound very appealing ground into a porridge to me.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

well I have the verdict!

I've definitely had tastier breakfasts...I followed the instructions on the website I posted in the first link exactly.

I couldn't eat it plain...well I could eat it, but I wouldn't want to which unfortunately is important. I doctored it up a little. I added milk to make it a little more "soupy" and less like paste, though just leaving some more of the water would have the same effect. I also added a little real maple syrup for flavor and sweetness. I could eat it like this every morning.

I think I prefer porridge with steel cut oats, but I'm definitely going to have this added to my morning routine!

All in all its a nice healthy breakfast with plenty of carbs, protein, and fiber aka gut scrubber (bran) :-)

Big Country

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

The sprouts are still small on the second day. You can see them coming out of the wheat, but only 3-4 millimeters. They are still white with no sign of green. There is no way to tell that they are "ground" in the porridge (no green flecks).

The sprouting, if what I have read is accurate, ups the protein content as the plant uses the sugars in the wheat until it is mature enough to produce its own sugar (photosynthesis). You can't even tell the sprouts are there.

Big Country

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Big Country, thanks for posting on this.

I have read that and have been meaning to try it but have not yet. What are you using for the screen on top of the jars, I could not find any of what was recommended on the site. And I was leary of using fiberglass screen.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Here are the ingredients for Sprouted Wheat Berry Bread. It's a bread machine recipe, but works well if you knead and form the loaf the old fashioned way :)

3/4 cup sprouted wheat berries
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbls (7 ounces) water
1 1/2 Tbls canola oil
1 1/2 Tbls maple syrup
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons powdered milk
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

If you aren't using a bread machine, let the dough rise once, form the loaf and rise again. Bake at 350 degrees until done (roughly 40 minutes.)

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Merlin:
What oil would be recommended in place of Canola?

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

I use olive oil all the time and do not find that the bread flavor is adversely affected in any way. I've used peanut oil too, but some people are allergic to that, so you might want to be careful.

You can make fairly significant substitutions in bread recipes. If you want a darker, richer taste, use unsulphured molasses. I like to save my maple syrup (expensive as it is) for use on pancakes and french toast, so I usually use honey.

If you'd rather not use all-purpose flour, replace it with whole wheat flour. You may then want to increase the amount of yeast slightly and/or replace some of the whole wheat flour with gluten flour to make sure your loaf rises adequately.

I guess the whole point of this recipe is, in the spirit of this thread, the health benefits of incorporating sprouted wheat berries in your diet. The thread got me remembering and I just setup my sprouting jar. To answer someone else's question, I use plain old plastic screen (purchased at Ace Hardware), cut in the shape of a canning jar lid and held in place by the ring. I don't think the screen material matters very much because the wheat berries spend very limited time in contact with the screen.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Have you ever tried popcorn? Denise Hansen, in her book, Eating Off The Grid, recommends popcorn with milk and sugar. She does say to eat quickly before it get soggy, LOL. I always wondered about the #10 cans of popcorn on survival food lists. Now, I understand.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Pardon me for jumping in but I recommend you try Macadamia nut oil. The flavor should synergise very well with the flavor of the bread. Coconut oil might work well too but you might run into issues with it being solid at room temps.

IMO, Macadamia and Coconut oils are THE highest quality plant based food oils on the planet. Nut oils in general are very healthy AND tasty.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Coconut oil is awesome stuff but I can't imagine its' room temperature solidified properties lend too well to bread, either.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Yes, I imagine it would be like eating bread with hard butter. Then again, It might actually be good. The recipe Merlin posted seems like it would bake a pretty solid and heavy loaf...might not notice the solidified coconut oil mixed in it.

Seriously though, try the Macadamia nut oil.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

First, you probably wouldn't have to heat the coconut oil very much to liquify it, no? So getting it evenly distributed through the loaf should not be a major problem. Second, we're only talking about 1 1/2 Tbls--how heavy can that be?

My bigger concern was the nasty reputation coconut has from a cholesterol point of view. And then, I went looking, and discovered that--lo and behold--its bad reputation is not deserved and that coconut oil is actually heart healthy! And, because of their high percentages of mono-unsaturated fats, coconut and macadamia oils both have long shelf lives.

Now, if you'll just tell me where to buy these oils, I'll give them a try in a loaf of sprouted wheat berry bread and report back to the group. Health food store?

P.S., back to the sprouted wheat berries. In a SHTF situation, the health benefits of sprouts would be invaluable. In the dead of winter, your supply of fresh veggies may have run thin. And the problem with many sprouting seeds is that they don't keep a long, long time. It's nice to know that wheat berries, which remain viable nearly forever, can be sprouted and supply vitamins and enzymes when everything else may have failed.

So, we've put it on salads, eaten it as breakfast cereal, baked bread with it, done stir-fry (heck it would even be a complete protein when combined with bean sprouts.) Are there other possibilities we have not yet discussed, because I want to know about all of them.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

My local Whole Foods carries it. Vitacost.com is a good online source. I recommend Jarrow branded Organic Expeller Pressed Coconut Oil. It's a very healthy oil and does amazing things in cast iron.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Merlin, one thing to know when cooking with coconut oil is the difference between refined and unrefined oil.

In a nutshell, if you are cooking below 280 degrees, use unrefined oil and above 280 degrees use the refined oil. Different smoke points. The refined oil also lacks the coconut "flavor" that unrefined oil has.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

I eat my sprouts mixed with butter/oil, honey, and fresh basil on bread.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

You'll probably want to forget about sprouts and concentrate on making bread.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Well, tonight I'm doing both; I'm baking a loaf of the sprouted wheat berry bread and using coconut oil.

SLV>GLD, the nearest Whole Foods store is 25 miles from where I live, so I probably won't be going there soon. The local health food store sells coconut oil, so that's what I'm using. However, even though its "organic" and expeller pressed, it's also refined and has virtually none of the coconut flavor/aroma I was anticipating. When this is gone, I'll try ordering online as you suggested.

Coconut oil has a low melting point (76 degrees F as I recall), so it's really easy to liquify it in the warm water I'm using in the bread recipe. Don't have the results yet as of this post. Have to wait for it to rise a couple of times and then bake. But I'll be back to tell you how it turned out.

Simpleworld, you suggested using unrefined oil at temperatures below 280 degrees. Of course, bread bakes in the oven at 350 or so. Will that be a problem?

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Well, the bread came out of the oven a little while ago, and it really is one of the best tasting loaves I've ever baked. Was it the coconut oil? The sprouts? Or did I just get lucky? Don't know the answer; but I'll be doing this one again for sure. It was crunchy and moist and tender all at the same time. One of the best I've done in ages. I'll be modest and chalk it up to luck.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Sorry for the long delay. I was away from a computer for a week and this is the first I've gotten to check back in here.

I used the "no slip" shelf liner its like puffy plastic coated foam in some erratic pattern. The holes are small enough that the wheat wont escape. I went to the store to buy screen (but didn't need like 8 feet or whatever length was the smallest) and the metal screen was quite expensive. I looked at the fiberglass and decided against it. I had some extra shelf liner at home so I just cut it in a circle the same size as outside of a mason jar ring. it then fits inside the ring though a little large and screws onto the top of the jar while the no slip padding compresses screws down tight.

I have no idea if this is any more or less healthy then a fiberglass screen, but it was free. I didn't like the idea of fiberglass...

no I haven't tried popcorn. I didn't even know you could get it in number 10 cans. I don't like popcorn when its popped anyways so it was never really an option for me.

Big Country

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Popcorn is totally different when served with milk and sweetened with maple syrup or honey. A few slices of dehydrated strawberries on top too :)

From Walton Feed:

Popcorn-Yellow 50# bag $24.05
Popcorn-Yellow 6 gal 45# RB $31.90
Popcorn-Yellow 6 gal 45# SP $35.50
Popcorn-Yellow 96oz #10 can $7.65
Popcorn-Yellow 6 #10 cans $41.70

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Just a quick question. Why would you want to sprout "hard red wheat"? Hard red is a wheat that is very high in gluten , which is important for helping bread rise effectively. Because of this it is more expensive than, say soft white. It is also the first wheat to "sell out"

So why use it for that?

s

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Because hard red wheat berries are all I've got? My thinking was that flour from soft white wheat would be good for pastries and biscuits. But because my primary objective was to bake bread, hard red wheat berries is all that I bought. I'm headed over to the health food stores later today. I'll pick up some soft white wheat and give it a try sprouting.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

same with me...Hard red is all I have.

I'll grab some soft white the next time I do a grain order and try it.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

OK that makes sense. I live in the upper midwest and soft white is what is grown here. For me too get Hard white means mail ordering it which is much more expensive.

With the recipe in your OP I wouldn't think it would make any difference nutrition wise, maybe a different taste, but I don't know how much.

Any idea how to make it without the use of a blender. If TSHTF I doubt my blender would work.

s

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

A hand powered food mill would get the job done. Not as well as the blender, perhaps; but the resulting breakfast cereal would just not be quite so creamy. After all that soaking and sprouting and cooking, the wheat berries would be soft and edible even without the last step.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

I thought about that but I'm not sure I really want to put something wet/damp through my only and unreplaceable grinder.

I guess teeth would work.

The old fashioned way!!!

s

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Attachment 69980

I'm not talking about your grain mill. I'm talking about an old fashioned food mill. They come with several different sized sieves. You can use them, for instance, to puree cooked tomatoes and remove the skins. You could also use a food mill (with the small sieve) to puree your cooked, sprouted wheat berries. As you turn the hand crank, the berries are forced through the sieve.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

Coconut oil is my SHTF oil because of the long shelf life, high smoking point and healthful properties.

The wheat berries can also be boiled and eaten whole as if you were making oatmeal but it takes longer. Makes a pretty good breakfast with milk and brown sugar hot or cold. I haven't tried it but I imagine that presoaking it until it just started spouting would taste as good and cut down on cooking time.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

by sprouting it, it takes only as long to cook as it takes to boil water.

I boil water with the wheat in the pan, as soon as it starts boiling I dump it in the thermos and let it sit overnight. It VERY warm still in the morning. I could eat it whole, I'm not worried about the blender not being around if TSHTF. But while I have the blender I'm blending because it makes it go down easier with no chewing. We use a "magic bullet" style blender to blend just what we eat...and its easier clean up then a full size blender.

Big Country

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

It must be a regional thing, because SW is always more expensive than HR, or even HW.

The only hesitation I'd have with macadamia oil is that too many people are allergic to tree nuts. Coconut oil, OTOH, is absolutely the best stir-fry fat I've ever used. Even meatless, it gives those greens the richest mouthfeel.

Re: sprouting hard red wheat
 

There is a health food store in Lansing, Illinois that sells both hard red wheat berries ($0.69 a pound) and soft wheat berries ($0.59 a pound). Both are so cheap that the $5.00 difference on 50 pounds is not real consequential. By the way, I tried the cooked cereal made with sprouted soft wheat berries today and it was quite tasty. I doubt that you'd notice the difference between the two unless it was a side-by-side comparison test.