How to grow wheat!

Wheat is one of the most important sources of food to mankind. Being able to grow your own wheat when the SHTF will go a long way to allowing you to meet your food requirements as wheat produces a pretty large amount of food from a relatively small plot of ground.

Planting one strip of wheat 1 foot wide by 10 feet long should be enough for at least one or two loaves of bread. Remember some of the seed will be saved for next year's planting so don't eat it all.

First step is to get yourself some wheat seed. I prefer red wheat and since I live in the South winter wheat is the way to go. Spring wheat would be the choice if you live up North.

First select a suitable plot of ground. It should be away from shade as much as possible. Now broadcast your seed and cover with a thin coating of dirt. Do not bury too deeply 1/4 to 1/8 inch (3-6 mm) is about right.

Plant your wheat from late-September to mid-October. Try to time the planting so that it is immediately before it rains or just after. Spread the seed about 1 inch or less apart. It isn't required to get a perfect 1 inch spacing. That is just to let you know about how densely to plant the seed.

The soil should be worked before planting. No weeds should be growing. It is best to start prepping the ground well before planting. Work the soil with a shovel/hoe and a rake. It is not important to remove all of the weeds but it is important to kill them. Turning the soil over on itself and then waiting and repeating a few times until you are left with nothing but dry dead vegetation and dirt. Then rake the soil flat.

In all but the far north you will plant your wheat in the fall and harvest your wheat the following Spring, probably around mid-May. You will know it is ready when the wheat begins to turn a golden color but still with a few streaks of green. To harvest the wheat, cut the wheat off with a sharp blade near the ground line and then save the wheat in bundles and allow to dry. All green will soon disappear.

After the wheat has dried and ripened you need to grab a bundle of wheat and beat the heck out of it against the side of a barrel. The grain will fall off and you can use the stalks for anything, such as bedding or tender or compost.

Now you have a barrel of wheat and chaff. Get another container for the wheat. While the wind is blowing pour the wheat/chaff into the second container and let the wind separate the wheat from the chaff. This is called winnowing. Do this as many times as is needed. Pick any heavy pieces of stick or contaminants that can't be separated by this method.

The wheat is now ready to be stored. Stored in barrels, bags or what-have-you. The wheat should be stored in cool, dry rat proof containers.

Now you have wheat. Learn how to turn the wheat into flour for bread.

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