It doesn’t matter if you’re a Militia member on the move fighting for your Constitution or an ordinary citizen surviving a disaster; you need to eat in bad times. The following should help anyone who is contemplating stocking dry bulk foods for the long term, in particular wheat grain. I have been at this for a number of years and below is what I follow and its been repeatedly tested and it works for me. The information is an excerpt from one of my Survivalship Handbooks dealing with the needs of a Survivalist. Understand this ONLY DEALS WITH WHEAT GRAIN and no other grains. Hope this answers some of your questions about this subject and gets you started as we are running out of time!
How Much Wheat to Store?
By: Yukon Mike
This is the most often asked question about storing wheat.
My interest in Survival and Bulk Dry Food Storing made me ask the same question. How Much? I began by learning how to mill grain and bake bread with it. It took a lot of practice to get it right and I ate and still eat a lot of home made bread in the process. Once you start baking bread with your own freshly milled grain it gets addictive. I am comfortable with these minimum amounts shown below as they are based on my actual consumption of the baked goods.
Remember, here I’m talking only about ‘wheat grain’. There are other grains you need to store such as; long grain white rice, dent corn, rolled oats, pearled barley etc. The LDS Church recommends 400 lbs. of various grains such as wheat, rice, oats, etc per year per adult and I believe this to be accurate. Below I’m talking about only wheat for bread and bread items and that’s why you see a difference in the total poundage it doesn’t look at the other grains.
Simply put, you could never have too much in the way of wheat grain because there is going to be a lot of survivalists who have misjudged their food storage especially their consumption of baked goods when forced to live in a survival mode and totally depended on your personal food stocks. You may also be compelled to help out friends in need with some of your extra wheat grain.
I’m using a one year time frame for simplicity. You don’t have to buy a year’s worth to get started in long term storage but you need to start. Start with 1 month’s worth and add to it as finances allow, but get started!
The example for: How Much to Store for One Year?
• On a per person basis, in disaster times, each person in your family or group will consume the equivalent of 3-4 loaves of bread items per week!
• A single loaf of bread uses 1 lb. of grain to make a single loaf.
• So a 50 lb. bag of grain will make 50 loaves of bread or about 1 loaf a week per year.
• 2 loaves per week = 100 lbs. of wheat grain per year per person.
• Add another 100 lbs. of wheat grain per year per person that would be used for making pancakes, waffles, cookies, etc.
• So figure the equivalent of 4 loaves per week per person of wheat grain bread based items consumed or 200 lbs. per year for a reasonable minimum amount to store per person.
In summary:
200 lbs. of wheat grain is 4, 50 lb. bags or 5 buckets per adult per year. For children 4-6 years old multiply the adult amount by .5 and for 7-9 years old multiply by .75
Family Example:
2 adults plus one 9 year old and one 6 year old you will need to store: 13 bags or 15 buckets of just grain for one year’s worth of wheat grain!
Another bread consumption fact:
A loaf of bread is 9 inches long, a normal slice is ½ inch thick, the end pieces are not always useable so you’re left with an 8 inch loaf which slices into 16 slices or 8 sandwiches. Now with little else to eat and in a full survival mode one adult will probably consume 2 sandwiches per day or 2 loaves per week between lunch and dinner! I see twice that amount per person when you consider making pancakes, cookies, pizza etc, etc.
Milling Wheat into Flour
You will need a grain mill. There are two types of grain mills to choose from.
A Steel Burr or a Stone mill.
Some models offer interchangeable burrs and stones.
A stone mill will mill the grain into slightly finer flour than the burr mill although the burr mill works very well. It’s what I use with good results.
If you can only afford one style then I recommend the Steel Burr mill as a first choice.
Your mill choice must be able to be used without electric power, so a hand crank option is required.
Lehman’s makes an excellent, thoughtfully designed manual cast iron burr grain mill. http://www.lehmans.com/store/Kitchen___Grain_and_Grain_Mills___Our_Best_Grain_Mill___C17B?Args
The Family Grain Mill is what I use with the manual crank and the KitchenAid adapter to power it with my KitchenAid mixer. http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/family_grain_mills.aspx
3 comments:
Thank you so much for this information, I really appreciate the information and the time, effort, and research you put into this post, thanks again.
Thank you so much. I have been struggling with how much grain it takes to make a loaf of bread. I have no Idea how to store the amount I probably need in the heat of So Cal. Hopefully with dried beans, rice and dehydrated goods if we need to survive we will be able to. Hard time ahead with good heart in view. Thank you again.
Anon,
Glad to be able to give you some guidance. The amounts work for me and I’m sure, with some actual use before you need the grain you can find the exact amount to fit your needs. I strongly recommend you buy a wheat mill as soon as possible so you can begin milling your own wheat and bake with it. Wheat grain stored for baking is useless without a mill. Also using the wheat for daily consumption during the good times will save you some food budget money and allow you to eat better with chemically free food. I use my grain every week.
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