KoMo Magic

Caron & Doucet's unique, all-natural wood oil has a 100% coconut oil base with either a lemon and rosemary essential oil blend or orange essential oil blend. The oil absorbs quickly and deeply for outstanding protection. Caron & Doucet Natural Food-Safe Wood Oil will save your wood kitchen pieces and furniture from dryness, cracks, and joint separations. Oil your wood cabinets, knife blocks, bamboo cutting boards, utensil holders, salad bowls, and serving spoons. Their wood oil is also great for using on wood furniture!

To use, first scrub away any leftover food residues, then rinse the wood item. Allow it to dry thoroughly (overnight is best) then apply a light coating of cutting board oil using your hands or clean cloth, and work the oil into the wood. Apply periodically or whenever you see your wood begin to dull.

Petroleum-free and mineral-oil free.

KoMo's interchangeable inserts enable a single KoMo mill to grind different materials without cross contamination. The set includes replacement upper and lower milling stones as well as the silicone chamber liner (or "insert").

Using this accessory set, your KoMo mill can be used with gluten-containing products (wheat, for example) using the original stones and liner, then after switching stones and liner the same mill can grind a gluten-free product (rice, for example) without getting any gluten in the that flour. The accessory insert has a much longer spout, for easy identification.

The switching process takes only about a minute after the first couple of times. If you prepare food for people with special dietary needs, KoMo's interchangeable milling insert multiplies the value of your KoMo grinder.

Insert #1 fits 250 watt mills (Fidibus 21, Magic, Harvest 250, FidiFloc 21)

Insert #2 fits 360 & 400 watt mills (PK1, Classic, Medium, Harvest 360, Duett 100, FidiFloc Medium & Mio)

Insert #3 fits 600 watt mills (KoMo XL, XL Plus, Duett 200)

These lovely wooden vessels are hand made in Austria from European stone pine wood, noted for its remarkable light weight and soft, elegant figure. They beautifully complement the beechwood of any of the KoMo grain mills, and they're also fully functional for holding dry ingredients including grain and flour.

The bowls are finished with food safe natural mineral oil. Not for use holding liquids. Clean with a dry or damp cloth.

For more details please see the specs tab, above.

These are the traditional baskets to hold dough during rising cycles (proofing). They're lightweight and easy handling, and their natural construction gives them a warm, attractive look. A removable liner is included with each basket.

The long basket measures 2-3/8" deep x 5-1/4" wide x 14-1/4" long.

The round basket measures 3-1/4" deep x 8-7/8" wide.

Made in Germany.

This conventional/non-organic hard white 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. If you're just starting out with whole grain baking and don't know how to pick, we suggest starting with hard white wheat. Note: Don't confuse "whole grain white wheat" with store-bought "white flour"! White wheat kernels are actually light brown in color. Store-bought white flour, on the other hand, is essentially nothing more than the endosperm (energy-producing carbohydrate) part of the kernel, with nearly everything nutritious removed in the interest of indefinite after-milling shelf life... which benefits huge commercial millers, at the expense of your health and the character of your food.

Our grain is triple-cleaned. It's also been tested, in the most meaningful way possible: By baking bread with it. You can depend on wheat 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 wheat is sproutable. Sprouting results may vary.

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!

Our 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!

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!)

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

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.

White wheat (triticum aestivum) is a gluten-containing grain that’s very similar to red wheat, but has a sweeter, milder flavor and lighter color. There are two kinds of white wheat: hard white winter wheat, and soft white spring wheat. The wheat for sale on this page is hard white winter wheat.

White 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.

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

To cook hard white 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 white 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, using white wheat is an ideal wheat to start with because of its mild flavor, and white color. 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.

Keep unwanted pests out of your grain mill with the KoMo cork spout plug. 

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.

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!

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!

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!)

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

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.

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 typically 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.

Our oat groats are certified organic, triple-cleaned, toasted and perfect for baking & cooking purposes. Whole oats normally have a hull (also called a "husk") that surrounds the kernel, and the hull is basically inedible unless you're a horse, or similar. A groat is the oat kernel that has had the hull removed. (Oddly, the terms "hulled oats" and "dehulled oats" both generally refer to oats that have had their hulls removed... in other words, oat groats.) Once oats have had their hulls removed, they receive a minimal kilning treatment that prevents fats from becoming rancid (and this renders the germ non-sproutable). There's no such thing as a "home oat dehuller", so buying bulk stabilized oat groats is the way to get oats for use in your home kitchen.

During the process of light kilning, a few oat groats routinely become trapped temporarily in the conveyor system and get a little over-toasted, then later re-enter the grain stream. The exterior of those oats will be a darker brown color. Most buckets will have none of these kernels, but they may be present in any bucket up to a level of roughly a couple of kernels per cupful of grain. Even at the highest incidence, these darker kernels make no difference in the taste or other characteristics of the grain.

Our oat groats are certified organic and non-GMO, and come in six-gallon buckets (or pails... another word for the same container), containing 26 lbs. net weight of grain. The bulk oat groats in our bucket packaging have a shelf life of 18 months. 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 and rodents, for example. You also need to protect your grain from picking up excessive additional moisture, which can be drawn from the atmosphere. The buckets our organic oats come in provide full protection against these 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 is mainly oxygen and nitrogen). 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.

In grain oats the plant's cellular walls protect nutrients from oxidation. The process of oxidation begins to occur as soon as oat groats are 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!

All of our grain is triple-cleaned 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!)

All of Pleasant Hill Grain's whole grain products are natural (non-GMO). Also, PHG does not sell any grains, beans, lentils, pulses or seeds sourced from China.

Our organic toasted oat groats have a shelf life of 18 months when unopened and stored in a cool, dark, dry environment.

Common oats (avena sativa) are a cereal grain that’s high in soluble and insoluble fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals. Oats are popular both as human food and livestock feed. The plant will grow in a variety of environments, but does particularly well in fairly wet climates. Oats are particularly rich in the mineral magnesium—a co-factor to many enzymes which help the digestion system to run well by allowing glucose into the bloodstream and helping insulin from the pancreas control these blood glucose levels. Oats may either be flaked (rolled), cracked, or ground into flour and are nutritional when eaten either cooked or raw. Due to their high levels of beta-glucan, oats are significantly helpful in lowering cholesterol levels as well as maintaining healthy blood sugar levels. Oats are also a good source of manganese, selenium, and phosphorus. The oats on this page are processed in a facility that handles barley, sesame seeds, soybeans, wheat, and peanuts.

The term “oat groats” refers to the oat grain kernel after the inedible hull has been removed. Oat groats can be ground into flour for baking. Steel cut oats are oat groats that have been chopped with a steel blade; steel cut oats are used for cooking, and are sometimes referred to as “Irish oatmeal”. Oat groats can also be rolled into flakes for hot cereals, cookies, bars, etc; this processing style is known as “rolled oats” or “flaked oats”. Sometimes you’ll hear of “instant oats” or “quick oats”, and these terms simply mean that the rolled oats have been pressed extra thin to shorten the cooking time.

There can be confusion with the word “oatmeal”; is it the staple breakfast porridge, or is it another way to refer to rolled oats? The word is actually used both ways! Muesli is a soaked, raw version of oatmeal.

By purchasing whole oat groats, you’ll be able to make fresh, wholesome oat flour or rolled oats at a moment’s notice. Oats are a soft grain and can easily be made into flour using a blender , or any electric or manual grain mill . Flaking oats is a snap with an electric or manual oat flaker . Kids have a lot of fun running manual flakers to help with oatmeal cookies, or breakfast porridge! Rolled/flaked oats can be used to make oatmeal, porridge, muesli, granola bars, fruit dessert toppings and more. To cook, boil 1 cup rolled oats with 4 cups water for 30 minutes. Whether baked, cooked, or raw, food tastes soooo much better when it's fresh—and oats are no exception!

Oat flour provides texture to dishes and its mild flavor pairs well with cinnamon, dried and fresh fruit, thyme, mushrooms, walnuts, coffee, and coconut.

Looking for whole oats? Avena nuda, or “naked oats”, is an ancient variety of oats that grows with a very loose hull that’s removed easily by threshing, which means the oats can be sold whole. Since the hull is so loose on naked oats, it doesn’t protect the oats from disease the way the tighter hull on common oats does. Naked oats are also more fragile, making them more likely to shatter when ripe and be damaged in harvesting. Because of the difficulty in producing naked oats, they aren’t widely produced, making them hard to come by.

Along with many other grains, oats contain phytic acid. Phytic acid can bind to some minerals in the gut and block their absorption into your body, keeping you from utilizing those much needed nutrients. The best way to minimize this is to soak oats groats, rolled oats or oat flour in an acidic liquid for at least twelve hours before cooking or baking with the grain. By soaking oat groats in an acidic liquid, the enzyme phytase can neutralize the phytic acid. An acid such as whey, yogurt, kefir, lemon juice, or even apple cider vinegar should be added to the water you’re soaking the grain in to initiate the enzyme activity necessary to neutralize the phytic acid. Oat groats have a very low phytase content, so it’s good to add a food with a high phytase level to encourage the enzyme activity. Rye contains more phytase than most other grains, so adding rye flour really boosts the enzyme activity. If soaking whole oat groats, remember to dry them completely before grinding or flaking.

Oat bran is the edible, outermost layer of the oat groat kernel. Oat bran has better insoluble fiber content than any other grain’s bran and also has good protein, vitamin and mineral content. Oat bran is a good addition to bread dough, other baked food, and cereal.

Oat milk is a non-dairy milk made by soaking whole oat groats, or steel cut oats, and then blending them with water, and pressed the mixture through a cheesecloth or other fine strainer.

Our long grain brown rice is certified organic, triple-cleaned and perfect for all baking and cooking purposes.

Our whole grain rice is certified organic and non-GMO, and comes in six-gallon buckets (or pails... another word for the same container), containing 40 lbs. net weight. When you store brown rice 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 and rodents, for example. You also need to protect your brown rice from picking up excessive additional moisture, which can be drawn from the atmosphere. The buckets our long grain brown rice comes in provide full protection against these 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 is mainly oxygen and nitrogen). Our buckets safely lock out pests, and biological processes are put "on hold" in the Mylar protected, oxygen-free nitrogen atmosphere, so your brown rice enjoys complete peace and quiet until you want to use it.

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!

All of our whole grain rice is triple-cleaned to ensure purity and protect your grain mill from any foreign objects. (Brown rice 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!)

All of Pleasant Hill Grain's whole grain products are natural (non-GMO). Also, PHG does not sell any grains, beans, lentils, pulses or seeds sourced from China.

Our organic brown rice has a shelf life of 10+ years when unopened and stored in a cool, dark, dry environment.

Brown rice (oryza sativa) is a gluten-free cereal grain that can be ground for flour or cooked whole. It’s easily digested, may lower the risk of diabetes, lower cholesterol, and help maintain a healthy weight.

Rice is predominantly grown in South Asia, but is cultivated on every continent except Antarctica, in over a hundred countries worldwide. Rice is a staple food in Asian countries and is popular in many western cuisines as well, making it the most popular grain for human consumption.

One way to classify rice is by the length of the kernel. Rice is available as long, medium, and short grain. Long grain has an elongated kernel, while short grain is nearly round. Short grain rice is sometimes referred to as sticky rice because it’s higher in amylopectin (a type of starch) which causes it to stick together when cooked. Sticky rice is perfect for making sushi, eating with chopsticks, and making rice pudding. Long grain rice stays fluffy when cooked, making it the preferred option to use in soups, casseroles, salads or as a side dish.

Have you wondered what the difference is between white and brown rice? White rice starts out as the same grain as brown rice, but the nutrient-packed bran and germ part of the kernel are removed in order to make a rice that cooks up softer and is white in color. The bran and germ remain intact in brown rice, and they give the cooked rice a slightly chewy texture and earthy brown color. Both white and brown rice have had the inedible outer hull removed. Brown rice is considered a whole grain food, while white rice is refined.

Rice bran, which is not present in white rice, contains most of the grain’s fiber. Fiber aids in the digestion of carbohydrates by slowing down the digestion process, and this helps the body sustain a steadier blood sugar and energy level. Fiber also keeps you feeling full longer, making it easier to eat less, for those who want to lose weight.

Rice germ, which is also absent from white rice, contains 30% of the grain’s nutrients even though it comprises just 1% of the total weight of the whole grain! Rice germ is high in protein, essential amino acids, fatty acids, and fiber. It’s also a good source of thiamine, vitamin B6, vitamin E, iron and magnesium.

There are endless varieties of rice—over 40,000! Some of the most common varieties are basmati, jasmine, and arborio. Each of these varieties are available as either whole grain brown rice or refined white rice. Our organic long grain brown rice is a variety called Mermentau and it’s grown in Texas.

Beyond cooking, rice can also be ground into gluten free flour, puffed to use in baked goods like granola bars, or fermented to make saké. Brown rice can be ground with any type of grain mill. Brown rice flour should be used quickly after milling to avoid rancidity. Rice flour is popular in gluten free diets.

To cook, boil 2 cups of liquid (water, or stock) for every 1 cup of rice. It’s important to keep the pot covered while cooking to allow the rice to steam. When brown rice is cooked it swells to twice its dry volume.

Our spelt grain is certified organic, triple-cleaned and perfect for baking & cooking purposes.

Our spelt is certified organic and non-GMO, and comes in six-gallon buckets (or pails... another word for the same container), containing 43 lbs. net weight. When you store spelt 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 and rodents, for example. You also need to protect your spelt from picking up excessive additional moisture, which can be drawn from the atmosphere. The buckets our bulk spelt comes in provide full protection against these 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 spelt berries enjoy complete peace and quiet until you want to use them.

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!

All of our spelt grain is triple-cleaned to ensure purity and protect your grain mill from any foreign objects. (Spelt 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!)

All of Pleasant Hill Grain's whole grain products are natural (non-GMO). Also, PHG does not sell any grains, beans, lentils, pulses or seeds sourced from China.

Spelt wheat (triticum spelta) has many of the same characteristics as common “bread wheat”. The earliest known existence of spelt is from 5000 BC, making it an ancient grain. In the Bronze Age spelt spread throughout central Europe, eventually becoming a staple grain. By the 20th century nearly all spelt wheat fields had been replaced by common wheat fields to achieve higher yields at a lower production cost. (Common wheat yields are about 40% higher than that of spelt.) Spelt is primarily grown in Germany and Switzerland now. The German word for spelt is “dinkel”. Spelt berries are slightly larger than common wheat berries, and they have a light red hue compared to white wheat.

Spelt costs more to produce than common wheat because spelt is a covered grain, whereas common wheat is naked, and it’s more expensive to remove the hull from covered grain than from naked grain. Covered grain has a thick, tightly attached hull and industrial-grade equipment is required for removing it, after harvesting. Naked grain has a much thinner, loosely attached hull that’s removed through a simple process in the field when the grain is harvested. Other terms for naked grain are “free-threshing” and “hulless”.

The process of removing hulls from grain is called threshing, and since hulls are inedible for humans, all grain must be threshed before it's ready for human consumption. Even though the outer husk has been removed, dehulled grain that’s had no further processing is still whole grain because the germ, bran and endosperm are all still intact.

Covered grains include millet, oats, einkorn, spelt (sometimes referred to as “hulled wheat”) and khorasan wheat. The thick, tight hull encasing hulled grains naturally protects the grains from pests and diseases, which makes them easier to grow organically. Covered grains are gaining popularity as their nutritional advantages are becoming better understood. Thanks to modern technology the once-laborious process of threshing covered grains has become much easier and more efficient.

Spelt contains all the essential amino acids, making it a complete protein. Proteins build and repair tissue and our bodies need a lot of them to stay strong and healthy. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and there are nine amino acids that our bodies can't produce on their own. Foods that contain all nine of these amino acids are called "complete proteins", and animal proteins such as red meat, eggs and milk are complete proteins, but most plant proteins are incomplete.

Spelt wheat has a significantly higher protein content than common wheat and is a rich source of B vitamins and manganese, as well as a good source of niacin, thiamin, and copper. As with other whole grains, spelt is also a good source of fiber, potassium, magnesium and iron.

Although spelt contains gluten, it’s easier to digest spelt than common wheat because the gluten in spelt is more water soluble, and it becomes weaker when heated. While this is good news for our digestive systems, it makes spelt flour a little more difficult to make bread with. The gluten development in spelt dough is more fragile than dough made with common wheat, so be careful not to over-knead spelt dough; over-kneading the dough would cause the gluten structure to break down and both the rise and texture would suffer. Spelt is an excellent choice for making bread, thanks to its nutritional qualities, flavor and texture. At Pleasant Hill Grain our favorite way to make sandwich bread is mixing 50/50 whole grain khorasan wheat flour with whole grain spelt flour. It’s a wonderful combination!

A correlation is sometimes made between spelt and farro. There are conflicting explanations for the basis of this correlation; some people consider farro to be polished spelt, emmer, or einkorn, while others say farro is a different ancient wheat altogether. In any case, spelt is sometimes referred to as farro grande. Because farro has had some or all of its bran removed, it cooks more quickly than whole wheat. Farro is used much like rice as a side dish, in casseroles, and in soups. To substitute whole spelt for farro, the spelt must be soaked overnight to soften the grain. Spelt can be cooked, but it’s most commonly ground into flour as a substitute for wheat flour.