Sprouting Wheat 101

After the Nourishing Our Children presentation I gave a few weeks back, a few people asked me about how to soak grains, get a good quality flour, about noodles, etc. I realized I had very little practical experience in soaking grains to produce flour so here is the beginning of a very important how-to.

Wheat: Any whole wheat grain will do. If you prefer organic go for it, I happen to have a bucket of Hard Red Wheat for food storage, so I decided to use that.

Quart size Mason jar: Fill it half full with rinsed wheat grains, also called "wheat berries."

Fill Jar full of water. Leave wheat to soak overnight.

The next 2-3 days, rinse wheat at least 2 times per day, or more times if possible. To do this, cover top of jar with screen material or a thin cloth to allow to drain at an angle.

You will see a small shoot out of the wheat grain begin to emerge when it is approx 1/4" long, the wheat is ready.

See the tiny sprouts?

Sprouting the wheat removes the anti-nutrient phytic acid. This is important to obtain a grain that is fully digestable and absorbable to the body. Otherwise phytic acid binds with nutrients

instead of our bodies being able to utlize it.

Those ions are just waiting to bind to nutrients and take them away from you! This particular picture is already bound to phosporus (indicated by a 'P')- which you could have gotten from your wheat if you would have soaked it!

Many ancient and traditional cultures soaked their legumes and grains for long periods of time and with careful preparation.

Once wheat is sprouted, let it air dry in a strainer for an hour or so,

then spread it in a layer on a cookie sheet. Place it in a warm oven, no warmer than 150 degrees. Leave in oven overnight or until wheat is fully dried. (Don't bake it!)

Place dried spouted wheat in a container in the fridge. Use it to add to soups, or other other meals. When it's still moist before oven drying, you can add it to muffins, or blend it into blender pancakes for your own cracked wheat!

You can take the dried sprouted wheat (also called Bulgur at this point) and grind it in a grain mill into flour! Keep the flour in the fridge to prevent rancidity and protect sensitive oils in the grain that have been exposed.