The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Looking for inexpensive grains

crustncrumb's picture
crustncrumb

Looking for inexpensive grains

Good morning!

Long time lurker, first time poster.  I am a sourdough enthusiast and have been baking for close to two years now.  I prefer to not buy flour from the store.  Until recently I was getting hard red wheat berries from a farmer in north dakota but mu source has dried up.  So I am looking for new sources of grains such as the ancient wheat ancestors and heirloom rye berries.

The problem is that most stores online are quite expensive.  I don't need to buy 25lbs of grains, 5-10 lbs is more than enough at a time.  Can anyone suggest a place I could these grains from?  Organic would be great, but not necessary.  I live in Wyoming and would not mind driving to Nebraska and Colorado or have something shipped to me at actual cost, not with a huge markup.

Thank you for any help and insights.

old baker's picture
old baker

I don't know where in Wyoming you live or where you'd go to get grain.  But with the cost of driving at ~$0.50/mile, a 500 mile round trip (250 one way) is going to cost about $250.  You can figure the mileage necessary.  All that to save a few bucks on grain?

crustncrumb's picture
crustncrumb

I am not sure how you came at $0.50/mile, but here is my math

Honda Civic goes about 300 miles in one tank of gas.  At $3 a gallon, it takes ~$40 to fill up the tank.  Even if you consider 250 miles in one tank, 40/250=$0.16/mile.

But your point is well taken.

old baker's picture
old baker

But there many other costs to operating a car.  Depreciation, tires, insurance, taxes, maintenance, repairs, etc.  It all adds up.  The IRS rate is 54.5 cents/mile for tax purposes, AAA now says 60.8 cents/mile as the cost.  You can do the math.

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

They may not have the grains in store but they will order them for you. 

crustncrumb's picture
crustncrumb

I was hoping to avoid getting grains from corporations and I am not sure if they stock the ancient grains. I will check in Fort Collins next week.  Thanks.

clazar123's picture
clazar123

It can be surprisingly difficult to find local grains. Most are sold to the bulk market and never enter the local food stream. Your best bet, locally, are either businesses that can order extra for you (bakeries,restaurants,etc),food coops, preppers supplies, Mormon warehouses, Amish farmers.......local county extension office, reference librarian (they know or can find so much info!).

http://www.wheatandgrain.com/order.aspx#wheat

https://wyoming.craigslist.org/grd/d/usda-organic-hard-red-wheat/6744965592.html   (Craigslist-local seller)

http://www.laramiecoop.com/     (Big Hollow Food Co-op in Laramie,Wy. )

Good luck!

 

bigcrusty's picture
bigcrusty

Dear CrustnCrumb,

 

I buy my grains here in Wisconsin from Meuer Farms. They sell Organic Rye, Red Wheat, Durum,Spelt, Einkorn & Emmer. Since I'm local for him he delivers to my home.  Daave's number is 920-418-2676 and the website is www.meuerfarm.com.  He does sell in small packages but I don't know about shipping.

 

Lots of Luck with your search.

 

Big Crusty

clazar123's picture
clazar123

I used to live in Wisconsin and Meuer's farm would certainly have been within reach for me but I never found them.    And I really searched when I lived there.  mmer, spelt, rye and wheat? Organic? Wonderful!  Their website is "under construction "  but I did find their Facebook page. They are new to the Milwaukee Winter Farmer's Market this year. I might have to reach out when I go back to visit.

Thanks for the information

subfuscpersona's picture
subfuscpersona

I recently bought 5 lb Wheat Montana hard red spring wheat for $12 with free shipping. That comes to $2.40/lb. Don't know if that is in your price ballpark.

Wheat Montana calls it's hard red spring wheat "Bronze Chief" and it's hard white spring wheat "Prarie Gold". I've milled Wheat Montana grain for many years and it always produced a flour with good gluten development and good rising power. The grain is also very well cleaned.

The eBay offers appear fairly regularly so you might want to check it out.

Best of luck in your search.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

for 47 cents  pound and red and white wheat berries from Winco for the same price  The rest.  Spelt, buckwheat, barley, Kamut, oat etc are all carried by Whole foods in their bins for up to $2.29 for the mist expensive Kamut.  They don't call it Whole Paycheck for nothing.

Yippee's picture
Yippee

The two S&Fs by me don't carry rye berries! :-(