Wednesday, April 18, 2012
How to store your wheat!
So this is why I don't like bags! You see I am deathly afraid of mice. Thus, there is no where to put this wheat but in my living room. This is not a very conducive place to fellowship with the family, unless you plan on lounging around on top of 50# bags of wheat. I usually get my wheat berries only in nitrogen packed food grade buckets to store my wheat grain. If you were to go on my web site, you would only see this option to buy the wheat. It is only during my trade show season that I have 50# bagged wheat berries for sale. I bring it to the trade shows for those who already have multiple food grade buckets to store their wheat and other grains.
If I were to leave this bagged wheat in my garage, bugs would eventually find it and mice would think Christmas has come! :)
The three things that are going to destroy your wheat are bugs, mice and water. When you store your wheat/grain in bags you the potential for varmints finding your grain is high. I know a lot of people do store their grain in bags but I prefer food storage buckets. I buy the wheat/grain in nitrogen packed food grade buckets. This prevents bugs and mice from finding the wheat/grain. In fact, I had a customer who kept her wheat/grain in her cellar. Well, a flood came and the cellar flooded. The wheat buckets were floating in her flooded cellar. To her relief, the wheat was dry as a bone! I wouldn't recommend storing your wheat/grain buckets in water but they do stay dry when sealed.
Many ask me how long will their wheat berries last. They found wheat in King Tut's tomb and were able to sprout it. The wheat berry was actually Kamut which is an ancient wheat. Wheat farmers will tell you that wheat will last 10-15 years! So bottom line, you need to protect your wheat berries and grains from bugs, mice and water. Am I beginning to sound like a broken record?! :)
As long as the wheat berry is in the grain form, it is preserved. It is once the wheat berry has been broken/made into fresh milled flour that the nutrients begin to deteriorate. So preserve your fresh flour by refrigeration the flour or freezing it for longer lasting nutrition.
So what nutrition is in our wheat berry kernel?
-Bran - Essential to good health; it permits the body to rapidly eliminate wastes and toxins which are believed to be the cause of many health problems and diseases. It is resold to us consumers (minus much of the original nutrients).
-Middlings -This highly nutritious outside layer directly under the bran; contains a high percentage of minerals and vitamins and is sold to ranchers and farmers as livestock feed.
-Wheat Germ - This important source of vitamins and minerals is also removed and sold separately as a food or food supplement.
-Wheat Germ Oil - This oil is rich in vitamins, but is removed along with the wheat germ to insure longer shelf life. Oils exposed to air oxidize and rapidly turn rancid, giving a bitter taste to foods that become harder to digest. Wheat germ oil is widely used in cosmetics because of its high percentage of Vitamin E.
-White All Purpose Flour - The result of the commercial milling process is white flour, almost entirely devoid of nutritional value. It is tasteless and usually flavored with sugars, fats and salt, which are at the root of many of today's diseases: obesity, constipation, diabetes, hypoglycemia, hypertension, heart disease, etc... "Enrichment" which is required by the US government (not the Japanese government), consists of only restoring artificially 3 vitamins (B1, B2, and Niacin) and 1 mineral (iron) after having removed 39 of them plus the bran.
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