3 FLOUR Alternatives ANYONE Can Grow!
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- čas přidán 15. 04. 2022
- Here we describe 3 wheat substitutes that anyone can grow, and might even be growing in your backyard right now! Wheat alternatives are great for when you want to reduce your reliance on the wheat supply chain, or just want to reduce the amount of wheat flour in your diet.
Wheat is a big part of the average diet. The average North American eats about 180 lb of wheat a year, accounting for up to 20% of all calories we consume. If you wanted grow your own, you would need around 3 bushels, or about 3000 square feet of garden space per person dedicated only to wheat. For most of us, that is just not feasible.
But, removing wheat from our diet completely isn’t the only way to deal with these issues. Let’s turn to the 3 R’s of food security: Resistance, Resilience, Redundancy.
Resistance is the ability to not be affected by change or pressure.
Resilience is the ability to recover from or to adjust to change or pressure.
Redundancy is preventing a single component from causing whole system failure through duplication
Deciding to grow your own wheat is a form of resistance to disturbances in the supply chain. Another way to reduce the amount of wheat you need is to switch from white flour to whole wheat flour. White flour only uses the endosperm of the grain, and whole wheat also uses the casing, or bran, allowing you to get over twice as much flour from the same amount of grain. We also resist disturbances to the wheat food chain by reducing our dependence on wheat through redundancy in the different types of grains, starches, and flours we buy, forage, and grow. Ideally you would replace wheat flour with alternative sources of flour adapted and resilient to your local climate.
Three different flours that we have experimented with include squash, bean, and dock weed.
We bake, then dehydrate squashes, this severely reduces the amount of space they take up in the pantry and increases their longevity. If you put the dehydrated chunks in a food grinder you essentially get flour. To keep the same consistency we have found that you can replace up to half the wheat flour in cakes and muffins, and ¼ of the flour in breads. Because pumpkin is very flavourful we find that we need to use less than other squashes like yellow squash or zucchini that have much less flavour to not overwhelm the dish. When using it for baking it is important to realize that squash flour weighs more than wheat flour so you need to use volumetric not weight based measurement.
Beans do not take a lot of space in the garden either because, like squash, you can grow the indeterminate varieties with vines up trellises. Beans, like all legumes, are also great for your soil. We use a mixture of different dried beans, which we grind up into a fine powder in the coffee grinder. We have made noodles that replace about 1/3 of the wheat flour in noodles, as well as only bean flour, in this case you use a lot more eggs, which is a great way to use up extra eggs from your chickens when they are going full swing in the spring/summer. The pasta tastes great, the only issue being that it crumbles easier than wheat pasta, so you can’t make as long of noodles.
The final flour we have experimented with is broadleaf and curly dock flour. This one is great as it doesn’t take up any garden space as it is a weed, and is likely already growing in your backyard. We leave the chaff on the seeds which grind into a flour-like consistency, but because the seeds are so small, they tend to stay whole. We have baked it in muffins, pancakes, waffles, and crackers, and tend to only replace ¼ of the flour because of the texture it adds.
These are three flour alternatives that we have grown or foraged on our own property. Let us know if you have used other flour substitutes that you grew yourself, as we are always interested in increasing our redundancy in flours as a way to reduce our reliance on wheat.
#Wilderstead #canadianhomesteaders
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I have traveled to Nepal, ground Rice next to a Buffalo... my favorite thing was watching my Nepal father feed his Buffalo... making her feed before he even ate!
Making flour from cattails is a great alternative too. Thanks for all the super info Amanda!
I have never heard of that, but our local cattails are protected on common land so unless they are on your own land you can't harvest them where I live. I guess it's because they are so good at preventing erosion and they are a habitat for animals. Many subdivisions have ponds where I live but the ponds have no nature around them. It would simply be wise to plant things like native cattail around them, it would also look nice and be great for an emergency if more were simply planted now so it wouldn't be a big deal if some of it got eaten. Many ponds are just for retention and have no nature around them, that's a waste.
I would suggest manual grain mill for those living off grid as well as for those who need to mill when grid is down.
Great video!👍🏼
Thanks, yes! Keeping our eye out for a good manual mill!
@@Wilderstead they’re hard to come by at the moment🥴
Cool idea with the squash border, and squash flour...never thought of that. Great tips! Happy Holiday weekend!
You too!
Yes bread is a weakness but I like all kinds so the brown and bran ones are mostly eaten... I try....
We hear ya!
Did I just see a Pinos bag?!? I came across your channel searching above ground potato beds today and loved the video so much I subscribed and started binging your videos. It’s my first year growing. Loved that you were in Northern Ontario but didn’t think in my actual town 🤯
Wee bit north of town 😉. Welcome to the Wilderstead! If you’re in the seeds of change FB group you’ve likely seen some posts from us.
@@Wilderstead I am! Such a small world. You guys have a great channel 🌱 💚
Great vid!
Thanks!
Awesome video, thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Thanks!
Wheat flour doesn't store as well a white flour, but wheat grains stores better than either.
Thank you for sharing
This video is awesome- Ty
Id Like to get away for empty white flour and using healthy alternatives. Looking at flour mills
Great resource if you have access to one!
I am allergic to gluten and have been doing this for years and could recommend quite a list of plants to do this with ranging from "weeds" to cultivars from countries around the world. My boyfriend recently planted crimson clover which started to grow over stuff, when I googled it they said you could collect the seeds of it and many other clover species some which I already grew to make a gluten free flower. I didn't know that, that is cool. I found out about another one when my friend's sister went to Sri Lanka and sent her a bag of flour. I have the normal gluten free flours commonly used in Asia like rice and tapioca flour but I love this stuff and will eventually have a collection of all plants that can be used to make gluten free flours and the dried flours. Maybe you should start a company selling dock seed flour cupcakes or something, people who eat gluten free foods are usually limited to very low nutrient content and high calorie stuff made from rice and tapioca and fillers.
I’m 70 yo and I grew up with potatoes in every dinner. I’m still inclined to have them with dinner. I’ve needed to cut down on bread in general as it increases my weight lol.
Especially homemade bread, there is no self control when it comes to homemade… 😂
Okra Seed flour and Sunflower stalk flour are two I just learned about.
very interesting 🤔 BLESSINGS 💞
Yes, my grandmother used the Common comfrey roots, during the ww2.
Dryed and grinded, they used this flour in bread😔
Oh wow!
Awesome video. I experimented last year with lambs quarters/goosefoot. It's a delicious wild spinach on its own, but it's easy to dry (I used salad bowls and sheets of foil on a hot sunny day) and grinds easily into a flour substitute.
The tiny dried flours on their own are reminiscent of a light mini popcorn or something. The seeds are similar to the dock weed seeds.
I'm hoping to find some amaranth this year.
I left a few lambs quarters to go to seed to try this, but didn’t communicate that with Dave and he pulled them. Glad to hear it turned out well for you! I will try again!
@@Wilderstead Ha! At least they literally grow like weeds so you know they'll be back. I filled a sandwich bag with seeds from only 2 or 3 good sized plants, maybe 5' or so tall. Tallest we saw was around 7' and another guy here on YT had a video showing his at 10'.
I'm certain they are one of God's wild survival crops alongside stinging nettle, pigweed, amaranth, etc.
Liked.
Thank you for sharing this! Such exciting information!
Good to hear!
I am a very visual person so I need to see to understand… your squash growing in order to suppress weed and expand is something I would love to see. Do you have a video explaining it in your playlist already?
There hasn’t been a specific video on it. Essentially, it works through competition. if the squash is growing out from the garden, covering the ground, there is less room/light for weeds to grow outside the garden and spread into the garden.
@@Wilderstead makes sense. I will try it this year and see what happens. Last year I had cucumbers on the edges... no need to say I didn't get a single cucumber
Awesome stuff. I’ve experimented with amaranth a few times. Its’s a fun and pretty plant to grow
“Muffins that taste like donuts” now that brings back some good memories ......
A great one to use pumpkin flour in!
Excellent I’ll take that advice.No honestly great job.😎😎👍🏻👍🏻👏👏👏❤
Thanks
l just order some wheat berries to plant and interested on the ones you are growing
How many wheat 🌱 do you typically plant?
@@Wilderstead l just ordered the seeds to try it out, this is my first time, so not sure if it will work here
i thought beans needed to be cooked before using.....also, 'dock' looks like a weed we call 'pigweed' here in MN. i have harvested it for an addition to our chicken and rabbit feed. i had no idea this was safe for me too!
either or, both dock and pigweed are listed as dangerous/poisonous online, i think i will stick to my squash and veg supstitutes
Thank you Sister! Where can I join a family like yours?!
I'm serious... I can sail a ship as well! I do well on landships! The bicycle can be a great addition and helpful runabout! To the garden!
Add a bicycle... hear the bicycle. She just wants you to be the best Human!
I have found a comfortable and realistic alternative, which is keto. You should consider it too.
Enjoy!
👍😊❣️
Don't overlook nut flours. Not much is easier to grow or gather.
Nuts don’t grow in abundance here. We wish they did. We have some wild hazelnut trees that we are trying to establish here though.
@@Wilderstead Good choice! Good luck!