Where do you get your bulk grain?

[Bink]

We were thinking about getting a grain mill, but are having trouble finding places that sell grain. They have grain for critters, but not for human consumption. What do y'all do?

[SquashNut]

there is a Yokes grocery store that sales bulk food in the card board bins. They do take orders for whole bags at a discount.
there are also buying clubs. I buy from Azurestandard.com.
There is a buying club around here from them.

[tooltime]

Bink,

We raise a lot of our own, but we also buy from a Food Co-op we have a membership in. We have also ordered in bulk from shopnatural.com and split the order with a couple other families.

[Bink]

Allrighty--thank you for the answers, we'll look into those.

[willowbarnfarm]

The best I have found is Waltonfeed.com

[seedspreader]

Bink check out www.localharvest.com

It's a good resource.

[Lizza]

Check the health food stores and food co-ops. I buy mine 50lbs at a time from a food co-op.

[Hip_Shot_Hanna]

There's also Wheat Montana farms and Emergency Essentials. Both will ship wheat to you. If you can avoid that, it's good, because the shipping is as much as the wheat itself!

[mpillow]

www.bulkfoods.com

reasonable shipping!

[FrankTheTank]

Anyone know where to buy in WI... Somewhere Southwest or central????

[Macybaby]

My hubby just went up to our neighbor while he was combining and asked for some. Got several bags of spring and winter wheat on my shelf right now. Sure beat going out and gleaning it ourselves from the edge of the field after harvest (only got enough for a few loaves of bread and decided that was TOO much work.

I do have to winnow it myself, but a little chaff doesn't hurt the bread any.

Sure is nice living where most of my neighbors grow wheat each year.

Cathy

[MikesMate]

Bink, I live in Ky and the Amish store I go to has bulk grains. Also the Amish feed store I go to has wheat. Do you have any Mennonite or Amish stores near you? Their prices are very reasonable.

[a1cowmilker]

My local health food store special orders it for me. I buy #50 bags of white wheat, and #25 bags of Kamut.

They are pretty reasonable, and I like to help them out a little. I am not really a good customer there, organic stuff is usually too expensive.

The wheat was $24.84 and Kamut was 26.12. Ouch!

[cindyc]

$18.62 for prairie gold (50 lbs) in my neck of the woods. My co-op is out of watertown TN.

[turtlehead]

We have a Bulk Foods store in an "outlet mall" (really more of a strip shopping center) about an hour from here. They will order 50# bags of wheat etc. if you ask them to.

You may have to ask places if they would order it for you. We looked online and like someone already mentioned, we found that the shipping was as much as (or more than) the wheat itself!

[DaleK]

You should be able to find someplace doing custom seed cleaning, in a lot of areas they'll be cleaning wheat right about now for fall planting. We just had our seed cleaned Saturday by a mobile cleaner so we didn't have to haul it, 12,000 lb at 6 cents/lb including seed treatment so you should be able to talk somebody into cleaning it and pulling it out before treatment, maybe clean it twice. They'll probably want a bit more than 6 cents for their time but it shouldn't be much. Wheat off the combine here is worth about 6-7 cents/lb now so our seed is worth 13 cents treated.

[Bink]

Excellent replies, folks, thanks!

We looked at the online sources and searched for Amish and Mennonite within driving distance. My husband compiled a big list of places to call today. Lucked out on the first try--found a farm within 20 miles willing to sell 50 lb. bags.

We surely appreciate your leads. Most of the people we knew to ask were coming up blank. It helped us greatly to know where to look. Thank you!

[sashay]

Hi, Y'all:
I am in New Mexico and just had a similar situation. The feed store sells wheat or oats or whatever...but it does not SAY for human consumption on the bag...I asked and they said they were "not sure" if it was safe for people or not. I said well if I buy some and make some bread will you taste it? They said sure...after I taste it first. In other words, if I don't die, they will eat my bread made from wheat berries not labeled for human consumption.

So...is this safe wheat for humans or just for critters? I have in the past purchased in bulk, but the shipping is a killer and with gas prices so high, it is likely to be worse than in the past. What do y'all think?

samantha

[DaleK]

I'd use the same grain from the feedstore. Just get it cleaned again in case somebody wasn't paying attention. When we take our grain to the elevator, they price it differently depending on whether they say it's good enough for milling or only for feed wheat, but a lot of times it all gets mixed together anyway. My grandparents and generations before never made any distinction.

[turtlehead]

I know folks that eat feedstore wheat and they say the only difference is that human consumption grade has been cleaned better. Less bugs, chaff, rocks, and sticks in "food grade" wheat. That's what they SAY. I've not tried any myself.