Just like it says where are you getting your wheat.

Also can some one give me an idea of how much flour one might expect from say a five gallon bucke of wheat?

Generally do you use one large bag or several smaller ones for wheat. I am thinking one large.

Thanks, I searched but to no avail.

Honeyville Grain.  Great prices and your entire order ships for under $5!!  Can't beat it unless you get it locally.

My local feed store

Local grainery, but Sam's Club has 5 gallon buckets of hard red wheat as well.

Can someone show an ignorant guy what you can actually do with loose wheat?

Wheat is ground into flour.

With flour, you can make any type of bread...

You need some other ingredients, yeast, etc., but wheat is where it starts.

Plus, ground whole wheat is very, very healthy.  The processed white bleached flour you buy in the store has been optimized for long shelf life at the cost of much of its nutrition.

You buy the whole wheat for long term storage, and grind it as needed.

ETA: Honeyville is good, so is Pleasant Hill.  However, I have found the best deal by finding a like-minded group to order in bulk from someplace in Montana.

You can get 60 pounds in #10 cans shipped to your door for about 52.00

Its through the LDS site www.ldscatalog.com

The price you see for it includes shipping. Each box has 6 #10 cans in it and each can weighs a little more then 5 pounds. The cost is 26.25 shipped per box.

EDIT to add this IS the best deal you will find on sealed number 10 cans of wheat.

Really all that is needed for making bread is flour and water, that is if you have some time. Its not that hard to make your own sourdough starter with the yeast that is in the air all around us. It takes a few days to get a good starter bubbling and a week before its really useable but its doable and makes some delicious breads

Thanks for that link. It is a great source for ready to store grains at a reasonable price.

Sorry to go off-topic, but could you tell me more/link to more info on this?  Replacing yeast in the long term is an item on my list.  A yeast-free alternative would be invaluable.

I am the OP, no worries and you are on topic enough as I would like to hear about this also.

Whow that comes to 86.7 cents per lb. That is the cost for wheat in the bulk food stores around here. That is a great deal, sealed and ready to store.

OK, I swear I'm not trying to be a smart ass.
A 5 gallon bucket holds 37-40 lbs of wheat, and makes 37-40 lbs of flour.  If you mean in volume, about 8 5lb bags.

Wheat is a lousy item to have shipped UPS.  it's cheap and heavy.  If you can find it local it will be a better deal.  Next choice is a pallet load going truck freight, worst choice is individual UPS shipments.

Waltons, Honeyville, and LDS are the best internet sellers.  Waltons quotes actual shipping prices, and will be cheaper on pallets.  LDS used to be the cheapest price, but as wheat prices went down their's didn't.  Still the best deal on #10 cans.  At one point they were pennies per pound higher then walton's sacks, except theirs was packed in #10 cans and shipped for free.

Then there are Coops or group buys ( www.somethingbetternaturalfoods.com does many urban areas)   Finally, you can buy it local, from the LDS church, or from  other places.  Noting you are in VA, how close are you to PA?  There are places near pitsburgh, harrisburg (dutch valley food), and I am told one in Hagerston, MD.  Between Hagerstown and Harrisburg is www.countrypantry.com

BTW, more than half of the wheat sold in buckets out there comes from Waltons.  It's still cheaper than paying UPS charges.  Buy you could also buy wheat from a farmer.  Try putting some ads in cragslist where ever they grow wheat in your area.  I don't know about VA, but they just harvested wheat here in AL.  Unless you know the farmer real well, he won't mess with you doing the harvest, but would probally love the pocket money a few weeks latter.  At least in the south where we plant it as a winter crop, and something else in the summer, it is critical to get it out of the field.  More so then in other areas where they don't double crop.

And start thinking about a grain mill, wheat needs to be ground to do more than survive on it.

Well, the wife already had some sourdough recipes, I just did not know it.    I need to review this info and incorporate it.

Finding it locally does save a lot of money on shipping.  One problem I have is, the most of the grain around here is feed grain.  None of the farmers I have found grow grains for human consumption, so that's going to be a last ditch level commodity.  

Now, I did find a good group of folks to buy it in bulk with and save a lot on shipping.

Local surplus grocery sells 50# bags of red or white for $28 and $29 respectively.

Here's what we have been doing with wheat

1) got a grain mill (electric with manual backup attachment)

we make the following with the whole wheat flour

+ pancake mix (family loves this more than any store bought mix now)

+ bread (using the no-knead recipe which was posted on this forum)

+ chapati (indian style flat  unleavened bread,  made over the stove burner, eaten with dahl (lentil stew))

+ pizza dough


this gives me an excuse for stocking 250 lbs of wheat in the basement, without my wife complaining about it

tag

I pretty much exclusively store "feed wheat" picked up from the local feed store. The only difference between it and that sold for "human consumption" is that the later has been cleaned 3 times, the former only twice. For the savings difference and the availability, I can deal with a little extra chaff and grit.

Provided the wheat in question has not been treated with some sort of chemical (which you should be able to smell), I wouldn't have any worries about using feed wheat. After all, farmers don't grow one type of wheat intended for humans and one intended for animals. It all comes from the same place. The only difference is the number of cleanings it receives once it leaves the farm.

You can check for videos on youtube.com from delta69alpha that explains all of this in greater detail. They also use feed wheat in their food storage and as you'll see, it is perfectly acceptable.

Thanks for the info, I did not know that.

From the field.

I previously got mine from Honeyville during the 'off' season. A few weeks ago, I talked to the old farmer who I buy my beef from (grass fed except for the last month). He said he was getting $5 per 50# for his latest crop and wouldn't even break even this year. The weather destroyed about 2/3 of his crop. I'm glad he was sitting down when I told him how much I paid through Honeyville. I'll be heading his way to pick up some, not sure how much yet or how/where I'm gonna store it.

sgt_seti

I was wondering what he was talking about with the feed wheat and human wheat.  I grew up on a wheat farm, and never heard of such a thing.

The market price for wheat is around $6.75 a bushel right now, and a bushel will weigh around 60 lbs.  If you don't mind cleaning it yourself, you can get a much better deal from a farmer than from these other sources.

Not everyone gets to grow up on a farm

Live and learn!  I don't mind being wrong, especially if I am corrected with good info.  

Me too.  Feed it to my chickens and I always have some sprouting on the counter
for my personal consumption.

ETA  $10 for 50lbs.