Red Spring Wheat Flour

I can't speak to baking with this wheat, since I only use it to grow wheatgrass for my chickens and rabbits. But what I can say is that it performs wonderfully, with almost all seeds germinating. I've tried other suppliers with mixed success. This company's seeds always seem to be better than others. They are very clean too. I've had some others filled with dust, which isn't a huge deal for my purposes, but if I was using the seed for personal consumption, might be unpleasant. Very pleased, and I use a LOT of it. Chickens and rabbits love this fresh grown grass. You get a lot of feed out of a small amount of seed and water. My chickens eat every scrap, roots and all. Some rabbits can be a little fussier about the roots. Every morning, they are lined up waiting for their grass. Even though they have feeders full of pellets. This is candy to them. My egg yolks are as dark as oranges, even in winter.

This is beautiful wheat. It's not even dusty. (The wheat I was using before was HORRID by comparison; I had to sift through it by hand to check for bits of dirt and even small rocks, there were a lot of broken grains, and there were little dead bugs. When I received THIS wheat and opened the bag, there was such a difference that I took that old wheat and threw it out on the lawn!) The grains are pleasingly full, never withered. There are very few broken grains. I found a few stray kernels of a tiny buckwheat-like grain, but those won't hurt anything. NO ROCKS or other non-grain contaminants whatsoever. It is very well cleaned. There were a few un-husked wheat kernels, maybe 1-3 in the nine cups of wheat I put through my mill to make three loaves of bread. It was easy enough to spot them and pick them out by hand, and the ones I miss do no harm. The bread I produced with this wheat, using the same recipes I always do from the excellent "Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book" (ISBN 978-0394537009), was simply outstanding, especially when baked in USA Pans ("8.5 x 4.5 Inch Aluminized Steel Loaf Pan with Americoat"). The wheat is high in gluten and produces high-rising, flavorful loaves. I'm sure the specific flavor and gluten content varies from crop to crop, but I was very satisfied with this particular bag of wheat. I have used ALL of it except for a handful that is sitting in a pickle jar, and am back to order more. **Update January 2014** I ordered the 50-pound bag in December '13, since I had been happy with the 25-pound bag and had gone through it so quickly. I don't know why, but it is not nearly as clean as the wheat in the 25-pound bag was. I picked out maybe 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of hard little dirt chunks (plus one small chunk of either asphalt or rock!) from a six-cup batch of wheat. I miss being able to just give the wheat a quick check and then dump it in the mill.

I decided to grind my own flour because in our two person household, the bags of flour go stale before I can use it all. I also store grain now for long term storage because the economy in our area has declined, as a hedge against inflation and unemployment. I was very impressed with Great River Organic Milling Hard Red Wheat and Soft White Wheat berries. I called the customer service number before purchasing the grain to ask about issues related to long term storage - when the grain was harvested and how long it had been in storage - so that I could put proper dating for use on it when it arrived. All the grain was the new crop grain, having been harvested August, 2011. I had also ordered rye berries, and was concerned how long rye could be stored, using "superpails" with mylar bags/oxygenators/dessicants. They answered all my questions thoroughly. They even told me the best days to place my order so that I would have the best selection and price on Amazon! I was very impressed with their customer service department. I also had concerns that the grain be clean and free of bad kernels or any mold, mildew, or extraneous matter, as my husband was on the heart transplant list and after transplant suppressed immune response is an issue. The rye and wheat was absolutely beautiful. I saw no broken or bad grains at all, no chaff or foreign matter, and the products were essentially dust free. All in all, I was very happy with the rye and wheat I purchased. Great River Organic Milling normally has free super saver shipping for their products on Amazon. Shipping was easy to track and extremely fast: I ordered my grain on a Friday evening around 7PM, and by Saturday 4PM the next day I had my grain, even though I had been told it may take 5-7 days to get the shipment. Great job! I will be ordering more!

This grain looks so good! On time delivery, even around the winter storm. I purchased rye and hard red then ground a small amount to make a starter from scratch. Over night I couldn't see much activity. I fed it anyway because I had faith and there they are, bubbles. Now three days in and increased feeding schedule, every 4 to 6hrs I'm ready to bake. Great grains.

This is a great product.Unfortunately I bought the wrong one.I needed the white berry.Still using it and it is truly a clean great product.I commend their efforts to make it this way.

taste great

I was kind of torn on whether or not to order because reviews were so mixed however, I was pleasantly surprised to see there were no bugs and little to no pieces of anything other than grain. I really wanted to start milling my own flour for my sourdough starter, but finding grain that’s organic and yet at a reasonable price is really hard. As of right now, this is the best grain that’s ready to use I have found, price and quality wise. I will continue to order from them in future, however the moment the quality changes I will update my review.

I am very new to whole grains... Therefore I'm sure my knowledge is lacking. However, according to what I have seen, I believe I may have found a piece of ergot in my hard red wheat grain. (Ergot is a fungus that grows on grain grasses. It is hallucinogenic and quite toxic.) I honestly only just discovered it's existence. I haven't even searched through the whole bag. This was all just in the first few inches of the bucket we put it in. Be aware of the strange things that can be found in some grains. Ignorance is not always bliss when it comes to your health and safety. I also found what looks to be a piece of... possibly poop? As well as lots of chaff (which was black) and some other kind of, maybe legume? I did order rye and soft white wheat from this same seller as well. So far, the soft white seems fine. I have no concerns with it. It smells good and I have found nothing strange. The rye is still in the freezer... So fingers crossed that it's safe. I'll be taking it out in a few days to thaw. I requested a refund for the hard red. The process was simple and thankfully painless... Though I would honestly rather have the product. The wheat itself seemed fine I think. It smelled fine and looked normal (as far as I know). But contamination cannot be overlooked unfortunately. I do not feel comfortable with using it for any sort of baking. I'm not even sure I would fee it to my chickens, just in case there may be a health concern. Edit:.... I may have also found a problem with the soft white 🤦 ... If you've bought from this seller for years, and never had problems. That's awesome. Unfortunately, I do not think I am so lucky. Edit #2: I was able to get an answer back from the manufacturer. They said they accepted a load of wheat that apparently should not have been accepted, and that most of what I thought I found was accurate. They confirmed the Ergot and the excess of chaff, etc. The thing I thought might be mouse droppings, is probably more likely a defective piece of wheat. The manufacturer was very helpful and offered to send me replacement bag of hard red. I have yet to receive it, but they were very helpful none the less. The soft white seems fine... I do pick through it a bit before grinding, just to make sure there's no strange looking pieces in there. Also... The Rye I had in the freezer ended up being a 50lb bag of multi grain bread flour.. so I was sent the wrong product... I should have checked when I opened the box.