Wonderful Wheat!

We've been experimenting a bit with wheat lately here at the suburbia farm. We don't have the space to grow it ourselves, but we can still enjoy many benefits of this wonderful product.As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have access to a food cannery that allows us to buy and can wheat and other products into these silver cans. (When I lived in Philly, we had to drive to South Jersey, so it's nice living in Arizona where it's only a few minutes away.) So, whenever you see me pulling ingredients out of these cans, you know what that's all about. Having staple ingredients such as wheat, sugar, beans, and dry milk in our food storage helps us in being more self-reliant. In case of a natural disaster or job loss or whatever, we'll be more prepared by not only having these ingredients on hand, but also knowing what to do with them. Wheat, in particular, can sit on the shelf for 20-30 years! It is full of vitamins and good protein and fiber. My mom gave me her old wheat grinder. It is so great! Just turn it on, pour in the wheat, and out comes the wheat flour! I try and use the wheat flour instead of white flour whenever I can- breads, pastas, muffins...

Let me just recommend that you grind the wheat outside though. Despite it being a very loud process, it can also leave a little bit of a powdery residue over your entire kitchen (just like the first snowfall of winter- how lovely).

Then, going along with our wheat kick, we got a crazy idea...grow our own Wheat Grass! Wheat grass is one of natures healthiest substances- some research has even proven it to cure diseases! Hubby found a cheap tray at Home Depot and drilled some holes for drainage- you could use any plastic container. We laid a baby blanket in the bottom (to absorb moisture), laid down the wheat grass, and in 1 day, yes ONE day, we already had this...

This picture was taken at day 5. All we had to do was moisten the grass every day and it just grew. Now, I know you all have a window sill or porch or rooftop or somewhere that you could grow wheat grass. You don't even need soil! The roots just kind of tangle themselves into the blanket. We also tried a few layers of paper towel and that worked fine too.

After about 9 days, we were ready to harvest our wheat grass. Pulling out the trusty juicer, we ran our clippings through a few times with some apples slices- to give it substance and sweetness. Look at that bright green color! It's almost unreal! The taste? Well, it's not like I'd want to drink this all day long, but I'm willing to drink a shot of it every morning to keep me going healthy. Just one ounce a day is all the vitamins we need. Can you believe we're growing our own vitamins?.. and you can too!
After your first harvest, you can let it grow back one or two more times, but each time will be a little less nutrient. Growing wheat grass is an ongoing process. It takes quite a bit of wheat grass to make enough juice for two people. That whole container made about 10 servings of juice, so we'll be getting a couple more containers. A friend of ours freezes his wheat grass juice in ice cube trays, then pops them out and stores them in baggies. He gets two cubes out every day and puts them in cups to melt for him and his wife. Brilliant! Just don't leave your trays outside where the chickens can eat them...apparently they really like wheat grass...