Wheat Shortage in the News

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I learned last week about an increase in cereal/bread prices because of a worldwide wheat shortage.  You can read more about this in these articles:

 USDA Web Site Article

 Bloomberg Report on Wheat

Luckily for us, we can easily store wheat in our homes!  It has an amazingly long shelf life and rarely spoils, so it might be a good idea to stock our pantry with wheat in case this dip in U.S. wheat commodities starts to affect our wallets!

If storing wheat sounds weird to some of you, try asking a friend from the cold Midwest, where families commonly stock their pantries to prepare for any winter road closures or power outages; these folks know to be prepared to feed their families no matter what mother nature throws at them!

In our case, it might not be mother nature but a crazy increase in prices that will make me wish I had bought wheat when it was cheap!  Whatever the future holds, storing wheat in one’s pantry is always a good idea.  If you have never used wheat to make your own bread, visit this link for a step-by-step tutorial on delicious wheat bread baking!

Also, know that there are many other fun ways to use wheat!  Wardeh’s recipe site  has a lot of them, as do these books:

Cookin With Home Storage 

Wheat Cookin Made Easy 

In these books, you will find recipes not only for whole wheat cookies, crackers, pies, cakes, breads, and muffins, but also for “Boston Baked Wheat” “Whole Wheat Chili” and even “Chinese Fried Wheat.”  These books make eating wheat fun!  J

Best of all, even if you ever find yourself in an emergency situation where you cannot get to fresh fruits and vegetables, you can sprout wheat in water, then turn the sprouts into all sorts of delicious foods.  Those sprouts contain all of the vitamin C that you would get from fruits and vegetables.  

Here is how you can sprout wheat:

To make wheat sprouts, thoroughly wash 1/3 cup ofwheat kernels. Place in a bowl and cover with enough waterfor grain to swell (about 1 inch). Cover and let stand overnightin a cool place. Drain and rinse kernels. Wash aboutthree 1-quart jars and place about 1/4 cup of the soakedkernels in each jar. Cover jars with two layers of cheeseclothor nylon netting, fastening them with two rubber bands or ascrew-top, canning-jar lid band. Place the jars on their sidesin a warm, dark place (68° – 75°F). Once a day, rinse thesprouts by pouring lukewarm water into the jars, swirling tomoisten all of the kernels, then pouring off the water. Inthree or four days, the grain should sprout. Once sprouted,keep refrigerated for up to a week. Use as desired in soups,salads and breads.

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Filed under Cuisine, My Minutiae

Tags: cooking, healthy recipes, nutrition, pantry, wheat recipes, whole grain