Sunday, August 9, 2009

Cleaning wheat

Yesterday I finally finished cleaning the wheat James had planted and picked 3 years ago. I had previously cleaned 3 five gallon buckets and we've been grinding it and using it for our bread. We had 2 other buckets left that I kept ignoring. I ran out of wheat yesterday while making pizza dough and banana nut bread so was forced to go out and do it. It has to be done outside or I'd make a complete mess of my kitchen.

First I put it in a sheet and do the twist on it to separate the wheat from the chaff. Then I dump all of it in a large tub of water and rub it together to separate anything I didn't during the dancing. The chaff floats to the top of the water and the wheat berries sink to the bottom. I skim the chaff off the top and then drain the berries and put them out to dry. That's it. When they're dry I put them in large parrot food containers. I probably got 8 to 10 lbs of berries out of it. I'm hoping this will last a year. I've been grinding it in my coffee grinder but should probably one day invest in a wheat grinder. They're expensive though. If anyone sees one at a yard sale let me know.

3 comments:

  1. You are amazing!!! The things I'm learning about, it's incredible.

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  2. Amazing? Ha! Hardly. Thanks Virgo. Are you a friend of my sister Elaine?

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  3. Yes I work with Elaine (shouting distance across the hallway!)

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