# How much wheat?



## dewey (Dec 24, 2009)

How many pounds of wheat do you guys figure, per adult, per year?
Most of the websites talk of pounds per year, but I am confused as to whether they are talking about 1 person or a family. Most talk of 400#. That seems like a hell of alot of bread to me.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

Wheat is used for much more than just bread. It is used for many baked products (cookies, cakes, pies), used for pasta (noodles) and then there are the many variations of yeast breads (buns) and non-yeast breads (crackers, biscuits).

Now, 400 pounds of wheat for a year also sounds a little high to me. For my normal baking requirements (based on two people) I would estimate 60 to 80 pounds of flour would be close (combining my whole-wheat and enriched white flour).

I am not sure how much weight-loss there is between raw grains and finished as flour, but, I wouldn't guess it to be more than 4-times.


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## longtime (Nov 22, 2009)

I think all the calculators use the LDS recomendations, they are all the same. LDS have 150 # per adult for wheat and 300 # for all grains per Adult. Having said that My wife and I use about 200 # a year, but we both like a lot of baked good.

See the link Food Storage Calculator


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## pdx210 (Jan 8, 2010)

what about all the time, energy, materials like water, salt, yeast, baking soda to mill and process wheat into food stuff such as breads, biscuits, noodles and more water to clean the mess up thats no sounding practical for many ..is it? 




speaking of wheat, anyone grow wheat grass for vitamin supplement ?


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## longtime (Nov 22, 2009)

pdx210 said:


> what about all the time, energy, materials like water, salt, yeast, baking soda to mill and process wheat into food stuff such as breads, biscuits, noodles and more water to clean the mess up thats no sounding practical for many ..is it?
> 
> speaking of wheat, anyone grow wheat grass for vitamin supplement ?


I am not sure of your question. We use our storage wheat every week and yes it does take more time than going to the store, however, I like it better. As far as the other items go, the supplies needed to make bread, rolls etc. take very little space and cost very little to store. Water usage is not that high either. The only thing that people might have a problem with is the oven. We have cooked in a dutch oven and do have a wood stove in the shop. Both items are possible for any land owner (You also have camping stoves with ovens that run on propane for the short term). This forum is to help people prepare. Go to Walmart buy a 25# bag of wheat ($14.00), buy a hand mill from one of the suppliers on the net ($50.00) and make your own whole wheat for bread, rolls and hot cracked wheat breakfast cereal and be ready or do nothing.


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## pdx210 (Jan 8, 2010)

I have two hand mills & an electric one for grinding grain. it's fun once in a while but I wouldn't like to hand grind my grains every day....I bake bread & home made Pizza. You can made great bread in a dutch oven or a regular oven with a pizza stone, I'm looking to build one of these home made wood fired oven The CCAT Earthen Oven - Home

back to the point,

Access to water & conservation of water resources will likely be an issue for many people. Breads and other baked grains are a water, labor & energy intensive foods. The water is largely driven off during baking and the clean up requires more water.

While rice is water intensive much more of the water is captured in the rice than baked goods reducing hydration needs. I see an advantage in rice with water consumption and ease of cooking.

The question or point really.... a large% of wheat storage may be a bad idea for some people based on their abilities to bake and water access


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## longtime (Nov 22, 2009)

I agree rice is a lot easier to use. Add a few beans and maybe some FD meat and you have balanced meal with some variety. Rice was my first storage item since it was available. 

I am blinded by water use since I do not see it as an issue for us and we really like wheat.


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## pdx210 (Jan 8, 2010)

We're water rich here in the pacific NW still in late spring -fall it can be dry and i'm a mile from the nearest river. I have a relative during the Y2K thing stock up on wheat no one in the family bakes and all they had an electric oven..nothing else and no off grid water reserves. They where really stocking up on something they didn't know how to fully utilize.


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## longtime (Nov 22, 2009)

As I said we are blinded by our water and energy use, we are not connected to either the water or gas company, we use rain water collection and have a gas well. It sometime makes me forget that some people are dependent on public utilities or stock pile water. I still think that the wheat is a great resource but people should be using it long before it is needed, that is why I started milling wheat years ago. But we also have oats, rice and beans and use all on a regular basis, I think that is the biggest mistake most people make is to stock up and never use the stock, it takes us about 5 years to rotate our stores.


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## allen_idaho (Oct 21, 2009)

Not to change the subject slightly, but here is another question. A pop quiz if you will. 

If you were to grow your own wheat and wanted to collect 100 lbs of flour from the harvest, how much square footage would you need to grow that wheat?


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

allen_idaho said:


> Not to change the subject slightly, but here is another question. A pop quiz if you will.
> 
> If you were to grow your own wheat and wanted to collect 100 lbs of flour from the harvest, how much square footage would you need to grow that wheat?


After doing some quick research, it looks like 60 square-feet of growing area nets around 2 pounds of wheat. To grow 100 pounds, you would probably need close to 3000 square feet of usable land. You would net close to the same weight in flour as you would get in actual wheat.

Others might chime-in here as well, with more details.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

Just keep in mind the economics of time if you're going to do this. I know UncleJoe hand threshed grain last year and I'm sure he'll chime in with how time consuming it was or was not as well as how strenuous it was but keep in mind, too, that you can pick up a '40 s or '50s vintage tractor and planting equipment/pull type combine for really cheap if you look around. Parts are still readily available for the tractors, and I'll bet for the rest of the stuff, too. True, when the gas runs out you're stuck, but in the mean while it may reduce your time spent in the fields. If you're going to do any ammount of grain, it might be worth looking into.

Just my 2 cents.


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## TomChemEngineer (Jan 24, 2010)

The "wheat number" can be offset by "pasta" since it is made with semolina wheat flour, if you like the convenience of pasta (which I do...I'm one of those people that could eat pasta every day with a little variance in additional ingredients). Pasta might not keep as long as hard red wheat. Bread is necessary, of course, but I suck at baking bread. I just find it incredibly difficult. Leavened, Unleavened, crackers... it is all a big unknown country for me. Wheat berries are easy (and with enough honey, they actually taste OK). "Sprouts" from wheat are good easy-to-grow greenery, too. Variety is the key, and of course "Eat what you store and store what you eat" is the ongoing rule. I need to learn to cook with it and eat it now.


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## lanahi (Jun 22, 2009)

pdx210 said:


> what about all the time, energy, materials like water, salt, yeast, baking soda to mill and process wheat into food stuff such as breads, biscuits, noodles and more water to clean the mess up thats no sounding practical for many ..is it?
> 
> speaking of wheat, anyone grow wheat grass for vitamin supplement ?


I think it is safe to say that we will be spending much time after SHTF with matters of survival, including food preparation. Our grocery stores have enabled us to have instant everything, and we can still stock many of those foods, but stored wheat is a valuable basic food. With experimenting, you can find ways to save time and fuel. You can also plant some of it for the future...they are seeds, after all. This is also true of beans. These will be important in the future when the instant stuff is gone. Yes, survival is more time consuming.

Growing wheat grass wastes most of the wheat. Instead, you can sprout wheat and eat the sprouts, the same as other kinds of sprouts. This would give you more nutrients without cooking and uses the full grain. You can also dry those sprouts and grind them for adding to breads or other goods, and once sprouted, there is more nutrition from the wheat.

You need water for digestion, so that is even more important than food. You wouldn't throw out any water used to cook with or sprout with, so your preparations of wheat does not waste water...it has many nutrients in it to add to soups and any recipe in place of just water.

Salt and baking soda are other items that you would want to stock anyway. You cannot live without salt, and baking soda has an incredible amount of uses that could be important in SHTF besides baking bread. Yeast can be made, or breads can be made with sourdough, so that is not as important as the other two items. You also can make pasta and flat breads (like tortillas or pancakes or crackers) without yeast.

With wheat, rice, and beans, you can have an incredible variety of meals and they will be a complete protein with combining the right way. Also, with a good stock of each of those, you can still have a variety and complete nutrition if you should develop an allergy to gluten or one of the others. Some canned or dried foods added in for meals and food from the garden and wild edible plants will fill it in to give immense variety to avoid appetite fatigue.


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

I know that one of the other posters mentioned a wood fired mud/earth oven and I have to say that I made one and while it could use another layer of clay, it works fine as is right now for making pizza, pita, breads and if I put my dutch oven in there after making the pizza and breads, it slow cooks for hours, and will work better when the last layer goes on and I get a real heavy thick door to put on it.
I don't have central air so in the summer it gets way to hot to bake but I do bake all my own breads and rolls and tortillas etc.









So I built this to keep on baking.
And as for flour/wheat- I don't use that much whole wheat at the moment but do used whole wheat flour. My family of three plus I sometimes send breads/rolls to both our mom's and my daughter, have gone thru 125lbs of bread flour since last Thanksgiving and I have used about 25lbs and just bought another 25lbs of all purpose flour, We have also used about 20lbs of good whole wheat flour, but it is expensive to buy compared to the others(I can't get it in bulk packages of 25lbs each) so we only use it like one cup per recipe. Now I am planning on talking one of the local farmers if I can buy about 5gallon pail's worth of whole wheat berries and I have my own hand cranked mill, which can be modified by taking the handle off and using my big drill with a socket attachment to grind, But in the cool of the fall and winter, using the crank warms ya twice!

So for us I would have to say that about 400lbs of wheat per family for a year might do it, Plus if you just crack the berries and soak them in water overnight and then cook the next day they are very good.


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## Lowdown3 (Oct 28, 2008)

More land than you realize. We have grown and processed wheat by hand more than a couple times. Until you do this, you really won't have a clue how much work goes into it, nor how much land you need at YOUR location set aside to grow wheat.

Soil conditions vary, irrigation and type of wheat factors in also.






This will show you the basics of hand processing it.

The general number thrown around is 300 lbs. per person per year.

It's not just "for bread", start researching what you can actually do with wheat and you'll see what I mean.

"Passport to Survival" by Esther Dickey is an excellent resource everyone should have.

Survival and Preparedness Forum


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## lanahi (Jun 22, 2009)

You can make all sorts of things from wheat other than bread and pasta.

Here's a quick and easy recipe for cream of wheat for a stick-to-your-ribs winter breakfast:
Homemade Cream of Wheat - Tasty Kitchen


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## lanahi (Jun 22, 2009)

NaeKid said:


> After doing some quick research, it looks like 60 square-feet of growing area nets around 2 pounds of wheat. To grow 100 pounds, you would probably need close to 3000 square feet of usable land. You would net close to the same weight in flour as you would get in actual wheat.
> 
> Others might chime-in here as well, with more details.


In "Homegrown Whole Grains" by Sara Pitzer it says:
"Growing whole grains is simpler and more rewarding than most people imagine. With only 1000 square feet of land, you can grow 50 pounds of wheat, which can then be baked into 50 loaves of fresh bread."

It does depend on which grain you grow, the soil you grow it on, and climate.


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## goose (Jun 12, 2010)

I've got 100# of wheat in storage; I have another 100# coming. I'm building up my food preps, and eventually want to have at least 300# of wheat stored, and 400# would be better. (Four adults for a year is what I'm shooting for).

But I've also stored pasta (thin spaghetti) as an adjunct to wheat; after all, I can't see the advantage in storing wheat just to turn it into pasta if I can just directly store the pasta.

I've been storing the pasta in heavy duty mylar bags with oxy absorbers, up to 6# in one bag. I can get 30#, stored this way, in a 5-gallon bucket. I can get about 33# of wheat in one bucket, so I'm pretty much breaking even on storage space. The smaller packages can be used one at a time, or even be traded if necessary.

So, as I've thought about the requirements of wheat storage, how much, and so on, it seems to me that I can reduce some of the wheat storage if it's replaced with pasta or similar other carbs (I also have 245# of rice stored).

(and yes, I'd still want the wheat for breadmaking and etc., but no need to make everything from scratch if I don't have to.)

My next step for learning is how I might store flour long-term.


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## pdx210 (Jan 8, 2010)

lanahi said:


> Growing wheat grass wastes most of the wheat. Instead, you can sprout wheat and eat the sprouts, the same as other kinds of sprouts. This would give you more nutrients without cooking and uses the full grain. You can also dry those sprouts and grind them for adding to breads or other goods, and once sprouted, there is more nutrition from the wheat.


Wheat grass should be considered a supplement rather than a food has a different nutrient content than wheat grain and sprouted wheat. For example there's no vitamin C, B12, or Beta-carotene in wheat seed the living plant is required to make these and some mineral and vitamins are best absorbed fresh from plants/ plant juices in a colloidal solution rather than dry oxidized pill. To grow 100 pounds, you need close to 3000 square feet of usable land. The average consumption of wheat per person is 146 pounds on a modern diet rich in meat, cheese, fruits, I think it would be higher lets say 200 lbs. not impossible but a lot of hard manual labor work. 
I'm concerned with what makes practical sense to grow in a situation where all work is manual, water may need to need to hauled by person. We grow blueberries and they require little effort on our part and have a high yield but one cannot base a whole diet off of blueberries


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## TotallyReady (May 20, 2010)

I have mentioned before that all the recommendations I make when teaching food storage are based on the food pyramid requirements for a healthy diet, just so you know I don't pull figures out the air. An adult needs 150 pounds of grains or a years supply. You should determine what that means in your family, what you know how to use, what allergies you may have etc. Grains include so many things, rye, oats, rice, pasta, barley, cornmeal.... If you store wheat be sure you cook and bake with it now or when the need arises it will make you sick.


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## TotallyReady (May 20, 2010)

Just to make that clear, you don't store cornmeal, it spoils pretty fast, you store popcorn to grind to make cornmeal. Sorry for the confusion.


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