Hard Red Wheat

Hard Red Winter Wheat Berries, 36 lbs.

Our conventional/non-organic hard red winter wheat is ideal for bread making. Breads made with hard red and hard white wheats will be very similar; the main difference is that red wheat produces a fuller, heartier flavor, and the bread will have a slightly darker color. Red wheat berries are reddish-brown in color.

Our bulk wheat is triple-cleaned. It's also been tested, in the most meaningful way possible: By baking bread with it. You can depend on wheat berries from Pleasant Hill Grain to make bread and other baked goods that rise well, taste wonderful, and are packed with wholesome, natural nutrition! For those who may want to sprout some, our hard red wheat is sproutable. Sprouting results may vary.

Beat oxidation

In whole-grain foods, the plant's cellular walls protect nutrients from oxidation. The process of oxidation begins to occur as soon as grain is ground, exposing the cell's contents to oxygen in the air. Flour that is several days (or more) old, has been exposed to oxygen that inevitably diminishes its nutritional value. The way to get full nutrition from whole grain foods is to mill them when you need them, right in your kitchen. Modern high-speed grain mills make it fast and easy to enjoy the freshest, best tasting and most nutritious food imaginable!

Convenient & safe storage

Our hard red wheat comes in five-gallon buckets (or pails... another name for the same container). The net (contents) weight of the grain is 36 lbs. When you store grain at home, it needs to be protected in a couple of ways. First, it needs to be protected from a variety of little critters who'd like to get to it before you do. Weevils, for example. And isn't this interesting: Chances are you've never seen weevils in the white bread or crackers you bought from the store. That's because weevils put no stock in media campaigns from white-flour milling conglomerates; rather, they know what's good for them, and they'd come after your grain from miles around if you let them. And mice have good nutritional judgment, too. Not that there's ever been a mouse in your house, but if there was... you wouldn't want it having access to your grain. Secondly, grain needs to be kept dry. The grain we sell is all dried to a very low moisture level that's optimal for storage and baking and guarantees that you get the most grain for your money. You need to protect your grain from picking up excessive additional moisture, which can be drawn from the atmosphere. The buckets our grain comes in provide full protection against storage risks. They have airtight gasket-sealed lids, Mylar liners, and oxygen absorber packets that remove the oxygen from the air in the bucket after we put the lid on. The O2 absorbers leave an atmosphere of nitrogen in the bucket, because air consists almost entirely of oxygen and nitrogen. (The oxygen absorber packets themselves are completely food-safe, being made of powdered iron and salt, which are kept separate from the product itself.) Our buckets safely lock out pests, and biological processes are put "on hold" in the Mylar protected, oxygen-free nitrogen atmosphere, so your grain enjoys complete peace and quiet until you want to use it. Note: If you don't already have a bucket lid removal tool, they make lid removal easy (see lower section of this Web page). Super Pail packaging is the "gold standard," the ultimate protection for your grain!

Super-cleaned

All of our grain is triple-cleaned (also called "triple washed") to ensure purity and protect your grain mill from any foreign objects. (Grain that isn't sufficiently cleaned may contain small stones that will damage or destroy a grain mill... not to mention that you don't want such things in your food!)

Shelf Life

Our hard red wheat has a shelf life of 10+ years when unopened and stored in a cool, dark, dry environment.

Non-GMO

All of Pleasant Hill Grain's whole grain products are natural (non-GMO). This applies equally to both the Organic and the Conventional (Non-Organic) grain. Also, PHG does not sell any grains, beans, lentils, pulses or seeds sourced from China.

Uses & History

Red wheat (triticum aestivum) is a gluten-containing grain that’s very similar to white wheat, but has a more robust, nutty flavor. To sweeten the slightly bitter taste of red wheat, honey may be used in a bread recipe. There are three different kinds of red wheat: hard red winter wheat, hard red spring wheat, and soft red winter wheat. The wheat for sale on this page is hard red winter wheat. Red wheat is so named because of the color of its bran, which has a reddish hue.

Red wheat is a hybrid grain, which means that older varieties of wheat with qualities such as disease resistance, weather tolerance, and high protein content, were crossed to produce a crop that has all the best qualities for bread baking and high yields. Red wheat was originally introduced to the Great Plains in the 1870s by immigrants from Russia. Today, the majority of wheat grown worldwide is hard red wheat.

Hard wheat has a higher protein content than soft wheat, and more protein translates to stronger gluten development in baked goods. This means that hard wheat is the best variety of wheat for making bread, pasta and pizza dough with. Soft wheat is ideal for cookies and pastries.

Hard winter wheat’s protein content ranges between 10-12%. Hard winter wheat grows predominately in the southwestern and mid-western prairie states whereas hard spring wheat will grow best in the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Montana.

Hard red wheat can be ground into flour, flaked (rolled), or cooked and eaten as a side dish similar to rice. Red wheat is high in iron, protein, and fiber. It’s a versatile, delicious, and nutritious choice for everyday baking!

To cook hard red wheat, it’s best to soak the grain overnight. Soaking the grain will ease digestion, make the grain’s nutrients easier to absorb, and shorten the cooking time. To cook, add the whole or cracked, pre-soaked red wheat berries to boiling water (2.5 parts water to 1 part grain) for 45 minutes to an hour. The cooked wheat can be used to make grain salads, or to put into casseroles or soups.

If you’re transitioning from white bread to whole wheat bread, we recommend you begin baking with half white flour and half whole wheat flour, and increasing the percentage of whole wheat flour over time. This should make the adjustment easier, especially for children. If you’re unsure whether red or white wheat would be better, we suggest getting a sample of each to find out which you enjoy the flavor of better. Grain samples can be purchased here.

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Shipping is included in product price, by zone. Please see the zone table on the Description tab.