Wheat...How to

Wheat is one of the cornerstones of western civilization, supplying valuable nutrition to people throughout the ages. Whole wheat flour is a vital ingredient in healthy breads and cookies. Wheat berries can be processed into bulgur or cooked whole like rice. They can also be sprouted to grow nutritious wheatgrass. If you want to become more self sustainable, think about growing your own wheat for food.


Step 1
Choose a variety of wheat. Winter wheat is planted in the late autumn, left in the field over the winter, and harvested in the spring or summer of the following year. Spring wheat is planted in the spring and harvested in the fall of the same year. Ask local gardeners or your county extension office which variety of wheat is best for your region. You will need to purchase about 2 pounds of wheat seeds (also called wheat berries) per person to grow enough wheat for a year's worth of grain.

Step 2
Plot out your field. Wheat grows best in rich, well-drained soil, and you will need 1,000 square feet of land for every 2 pounds of wheat seeds.

Step 3
Prepare the field as you would for any other crop, by tilling the land and amending it with any fertilizers as needed. Plow furrows in the soil approximately 6 inches apart with a plow or hoe. ( Disk or a Drag will do this )

Step 4
Sow your wheat by scattering it in the furrows. It is best to have one person sowing and another person following behind to cover the furrows, or else the birds might help themselves to your wheat seeds.
Step A
Prepare your soil. Luckily, wheat is a hardy crop that grows in many soil types unless the area is often under water. Soil, tilled at least three times before sowing wheat produces an optimum number of germinated seeds. Till the ground to a depth of 6 inches one month before planting and again two weeks before and one more time just before sowing.

Step B
Opt to use no-till technology to plant your wheat seed if you have many acres to plant and your area is prone to erosion. Check with your local county extension office about the cost to rent a no-till drill. Unfortunately, using no-till technology will lower the germination rate of your seed.

Step C
Sow your wheat seed approximately two weeks before the date of the first frost in your region. Unlike other crops, wheat must germinate in the late fall before it goes dormant over the winter in order for it to have sufficient time to develop in the spring. As a winter crop, it will grow a few inches before turning brown and appearing to be dead. Yet in early spring it will green up nicely.

Step D
Spread your seed by hand in a small family plot or use a drill for larger acreage. Most drills are available to rent from local agricultural cooperatives in farming communities. The name is deceptive, however, since the drill doesn’t drill anything. Numerous curved disks slice through the tilled soil and wheat seeds drop into the trenches left behind.

Step E
Drop your seed by hand, for a small crop, at the rate of one seed every 3 inches and space your rows 6 inches apart. If you like, you can spread a tiny bit of soil over the exposed seed to depth of 1/8 of an inch but if your soil is soft and porous, there is no need. The wheat seeds will fall into the low areas where they will quickly develop roots upon sprouting.


Step 5
Wheat can thrive in a dry climate, but it does need some water. If more than a week or two passes without any rain, you may need to water your wheat. You will also need to water more often in very hot weather.

Step 6
At the end of the growing season, cut your wheat with a scythe, sickle or combine. Gather the stalks into bundles and thresh by beating, shaking or stepping on it. Winnow to separate the wheat from the chaff, and store the whole wheat berries in a cool, dark place. Process into flour or bulgur as needed.

Although most people think of wheat as a grain, wheat is also a grass. Just after corn, wheat is the second most produced crop in the world. Wheat can be ground into flour, which can create limitless baked goods and breads. Growing your own wheat can limit the chance that your food is infected with pesticides and can help you save money in the long run. You can grow wheat all year long if you grow it in a greenhouse--the recommended way to grow wheat if you have limited space. Because your are planting your wheat in a greenhouse, you can plant it anytime, but most farmers plant wheat as soon as they see the first frost in late fall.




Step 1
Fill a 1-foot deep, square planting tray 3/4 full with topsoil. You can purchase topsoil at your local hardware or gardening store.

Step 2
Fill the tray the rest of the way with fertilizer and mix thoroughly with a small rake. Rake the top of the soil until it is smooth.

Step 3
Using the rake, make 2-inch deep divots in the soil.

Step 4
Place wheat seeds in your palm and throw them into the tray, using your wrist to evenly disperse them.

Step 5
Place the tray on top of a table in the greenhouse where it can get direct sunlight. Water your wheat twice a week and in about two seasons or 120 days, your wheat is ready for harvesting. You will know when the top of the stalk has turned yellow and the kernels towards the top of the stalk have completely dried.

Step 6
Using a small scythe, cut down the yellow part of the stalk and you are ready to begin preparing your wheat for making flour.

While we have become spoiled with simple modern wonders, such as premade flour and baking goods bagged and ready to use in every supermarket across the U.S., we often forget that these chores were once performed by regular people each and every day. Home-ground flour may be a chore, but making it at home ensures the freshest possible flour packed full of all the vitamins and minerals nature intended.


Step 1
Begin with fresh wheat grain that has been separated from the stalks but has not been heated or treated in any way. Rinse the wheat thoroughly. Spread evenly on muslin cloth or fine screens, allowing it to dry completely.

Step 2
Place the fresh grain in either a stone or metal mill. Mills are available in a variety of sizes, including small hand-operated mills for home use. Turn the crank on the mill, moving the wheat through the revolving grinders and collecting the resulting powder in the lower bin.

Step 3
Sift the flour through three different mesh gauges. For best results, purchase flour sifters from the same store where you purchase your mill, as they will be able to help you select the right sizes for wheat flour. The first and largest gauge will separate the bran from the flour. The bran can be used to make breakfast breads, sprinkled in the garden as compost or mixed with feed for animals.

Step 4
Pass the flour through a second sifter to divide course flour from fine flour. Course flour can be used to make tortillas, sandwich breads and crackers. Fine flour is best used for more delicate baking, such as cakes, pie crusts and pastries.

Step 5
Store your flour in a cool, dark and dry location, as it contains no preservatives and will spoil faster than supermarket varieties. Fine flour spoils faster than bran and course flour, so make sure it is stored in an airtight container and that you only make as much as you can use in two or three months.

Other flours


Amaranth flour is a flour produced from ground amaranth grain. It was commonly used in pre-Columbian meso-American cuisine. It is becoming more and more available in speciality food shops.

Atta flour is a whole-grain wheat flour important in Indian and Pakistani cuisine, used for a range of breads such as roti, naan and chapati.

Bean flour is a flour produced from pulverized dried or ripe beans.

Brown rice flour is of great importance in Southeast Asian cuisine. Also edible rice paper can be made from it.

Buckwheat flour is used as an ingredient in many pancakes in the United States. In Japan, it is used to make a popular noodle called soba. In Russia, buckwheat flour is added to the batter for pancakes called blinis which are frequently eaten with caviar. Buckwheat flour is also used to make crêpes bretonnes in Brittany. On Hindu fasting days (Navaratri mainly, also Maha Shivaratri), people eat items made of buckwheat flour. The preparation varies across India. The famous ones are Kuttu Ki Puri and Kuttu Pakoras. In most of northern and western states they call this Kuttu ka atta.

Cassava flour is made from the root of the cassava plant. In a purified form (pure starch), it is called tapioca flour (see in list, below)

Chestnut flour is popular in Corsica, the Périgord and Lunigiana for breads, cakes and pastas. It is the original ingredient for "polenta", still used as such in Corsica and other Mediterranean locations. Chestnut bread keeps fresh for as long as two weeks.[3] In other parts of Italy it is mainly used for desserts.

Chickpea flour (also known as gram flour or besan) is of great importance in Indian cuisine, and in Italy, where it is used for the Ligurian farinata.

Chuño flour made from dried potatoes in various countries of South America

Corn (maize) flour is popular in the Southern and Southwestern US, Mexico, South America, and Punjab regions of India and Pakistan, where it called as Makkai Ka Atta. Coarse whole-grain corn flour is usually called corn meal. Corn meal that has been bleached with lye is called masa harina (see masa) and is used to make tortillas and tamales in Mexican cooking. Corn flour should never be confused with cornstarch, which is known as "cornflour" in British English.
Cornstarch is powdered endosperm of the corn kernel.

Glutinous rice flour or sticky rice flour, used in east and southeast Asian cuisines for making tangyuan etc.

Maida flour is a finely-milled wheat flour used to make a wide variety of Indian breads such as paratha and naan. Maida is widely used not only in Indian cuisine but also in Central Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine.Though sometimes referred to as "all-purpose flour" by Indian chefs, it more closely resembles cake flour or even pure starch. In India, maida flour is used to make pastries and other bakery items such as bread, biscuits and toast.
Noodle flour is special blend of flour used for the making of Asian style noodles. The flour could be from wheat or rice.

Nut flours are grated from oily nuts—most commonly almonds and hazelnuts—and are used instead of or in addition to wheat flour to produce more dry and flavourful pastries and cakes. Cakes made with nut flours are usually called tortes and most originated in Central Europe, in countries such as Hungary and Austria.

Peasemeal or pea flour is a flour produced from roasted and pulverized yellow field peas.

Peanut flour made from shelled/cooked peanuts is a higher protein alternative to using regular flour

Potato starch flour is obtained by grinding the tubers to a pulp and removing the fibre and protein by water-washings. Potato starch (flour) is very white starch powder used as a thickening agent. Standard (native) potato starch needs boiling, to thicken in water, giving a transparent gel. Because the flour is made from neither grain nor legume, it is used as substitute for wheat flour in cooking by Jews during Passover, when grains are not eaten.

Potato flour, often confused with potato starch, is a peeled, cooked potato, mashed, mostly drumdried and grinded potato flakes using the whole potato and thus containing the protein and some of the fibres of the potato; having an off-white slight yellowish colour. Dehydraded potatoes or instant mashed potatoes can also be granular, flakes.[4] Potato flour is cold water soluble.

Rice flour is ground kernels of rice. It is used in Western countries and especially for people who suffer from gluten intolerance, since rice does not contain gluten.

Rye flour is used to bake the traditional sourdough breads of Poland, Germany and Scandinavia. Most rye breads use a mix of rye and wheat flours because rye does not produce a sufficient amount of gluten. Pumpernickel bread is usually made exclusively of rye, and contains a mixture of rye flour and rye meal.

Tapioca flour, produced from the root of the cassava plant, is used to make breads, pancakes, tapioca pudding, a savoury porridge called fufu in Africa, and is used as a starch.

Teff flour is made from the grain teff, and is of considerable importance in eastern Africa (particularly around the horn of Africa). Notably, it is the chief ingredient in the bread injera, an important component of Ethiopian cuisine.

Flour can also be made from soy beans, peanuts, arrowroot, taro, cattails, acorns, quinoa and other non-cereal foodstuffs.