Wheat?

[JoJo]

 Planing on buying some wheat. Which should I buy, hard white or hard red wheat? It will be used as wheat berries and not flour.

[JohnyMac]

I would guess hard red. But to be sure buy one-pound each from health food store and try them out.

[Kbop]

just a suggestion here - consider some barley and oat groats too.  the different grains cook and boil with slightly different flavors.  The shelf life is roughly the same.

with wheat,
the protein content of hard red is a bit better than white wheat but not so's you'de notice much.  Most of the whichness of the whyness arguments i hear about wheat come from bakers using flour.

I use sprouted barley and wheat (just field run, not fancy cleaned stuff).  Its great for fodder in the winter for chickens and sheep - as a treat on cold days.  They treat it like cotton candy.  With a bit of garlic oil in a salad or stir fried, i find it tasty too.  sprouting wheat makes it taste better and changes the nutrition palette. 

  I'll second JM's suggestion - try a bit and get what you like.

[JoJo]

 Thanks guys.

[Jackalope]

   You can grow wheat sprouts too, which are high in proteins, vitamin C, etc.  Sprouts are easy to grow, and they taste pretty good too!

[zanedclark]

Jo Jo I would suggest as well that you purchase a small amount of wheat berries and not worry about the type if you are going to use them as gruel.  I purchased some from my local supermarket and also from a nearby health store.

They take about one hour at simmer, as I recall to get soft enough to eat.  Sort of like oat groats.  I only bought them once and was glad when they were finished.  Only bought oat groats once as well.

If you can't find them locally https://www.bobsredmill.com/hard-red-wheat-berries.html Bob's Red Mill in 2 pound bags.  So if you haven't done this yet, do a small amount to see if you like it. 

I was going to buy wheat berries and a mill, but opted to buy 30 pounds of whole wheat flour from King Arthur Flour and keep it in the freezer.

z

[wynnp4]

Hard Wheat is better for Bread and Soft Red is better for cookies and crackers.... We grow soft red winter wheat here...

WP

[JohnyMac]

WOW! I am impressed Wynn. We tried to grow wheat here in NE PA one year and it was a total disaster. We probably used the wrong type of wheat for NE PA. Thinking back, I think it was a hard wheat we tried to grow. I scratch my head as I am sure our forefathers grew wheat around here. 

[wynnp4]

Yes you defiantly have to grow the correct verities for you area...  I could ask some of the seed specialists.  You MUST start wheat in the fall... Wheat needs to overwinter and get a good dose of fertilizer in the early spring/late winter...   We have about 300 or so acres this year.  If the prices keep going up we will be growing much more next year.

Penn wheat info: https://extension.psu.edu/small-grain-planting-considerations


WP