Drying Fresh Wheat Grain and making a starter with the fresh ground wheat berries 7/02/2011

I spread the wheat berries on a clean towel today outside to let the wheat berries dry.  I have no idea if they are already dried enough or not.  I do have some stalks with the wheat berries attached from yesterday, and from what I have been reading, they are already dried when you can shake the stalk and hear the wheat berries rattle.  Mine do sound like that.

I called the farmer and his wife again today to thank them for the wheat and talked to the farmers wife for awhile about the wheat berries.  She said she had asked her husband what kind of wheat was planted and he will check and see what kind of wheat that I have now, and if it is soft or hard winter wheat.  I also asked the farmers wife how to know when the wheat berries are dried enough to grind.  She said she really doesn’t know, but her husband has some kind of moisture meter to know when the wheat is ready to be harvested.  She said she thought the wheat wouldn’t be harvested until it was dried.  She is going to check with her husband about this.  I also told the farmers wife if I was successful in my attempt to make pizza out of the wheat berries, I would have them over to market to try the pizzas.

Picture of wheat spread out.  I brought it back inside this evening and will take it back outside tomorrow.

I ground some of the fresh wheat berries and added a little fresh squeezed lemon, a little orange juice and a little water.  At least I would think a good starter could be made from the fresh wheat berries, I was fortunate enough to get from the farmers yesterday, because the fresh wheat berries should have good wild yeast on them.

Norma

Few Preferment Lehmann Pizzas Made 6/28/2011

This are a few pictures of the regular pizza I make at market on Tuesday's.  I used the preferment Lehmann dough for my pizzas, except when I am doing other experiments.  My dough starts with a poolish preferment.

Norma

EL-7 added to preferment Lehmann dough to help with opening dough ball 6/28/2011

The EL-7 added to the preferment Lehmann dough worked out well.  The dough was easy to open and the crust seemed to be moister since the EL-7 was added.  The taste of the final pizza with EL-7 tasted about the same as a regular preferment Lehmann dough pizza.

What I found interesting about the preferment Lehmann dough ball with the EL-7 added is it wanted seem to ferment more too, just like the "Old Faithful" dough ball did.  Usually in a one day cold ferment, I don't develop any big bubbles on the top of the dough balls, but did yesterday, even before the warm-up.  The warm-up time was a little over an hour and the bubble on top of the dough ball did become bigger.

Steve placed fresh basil from my garden on this pizza, so the preferment Lehmann dough with the EL-7 added was a Pizza Margherita, at least for this pie.

Norma

Next Attempt at hybrid Reinhart ...6/28/2011...still am not getting it right

After I got the oven fired-up and set-up all the other stuff, I reballed the hybrid Reinhart dough ball with a little oil.  I then placed it in my pizza prep refrigerator.  Six hours later, I took the hybrid Reinhart dough ball out and didn’t let it warm-up at all.  Although the dough was very soft and wasn’t sticky, when opening the dough ball it wanted to keep stretching back, and in one spot I got a thin spot from the dough wanting to stretch back.  I didn’t get the skin stretched to 16" because I was afraid of developing more thin spots.  I did use cornmeal on the peel and didn’t use a lot.  It worked well, when sliding the pie into the oven.  When the pie was in the oven Steve and I could smell the great aroma of the cornmeal.  After the pie baked for awhile, the thin spot did break down and wanted to stick to the deck.  I then put the pie on a screen, because I didn’t want any more mess in the oven.

The finished pie had a great taste in the crust and was very moist in the rim.  It can be seen on the pictures how the dough ball looked before I did the reball and also right before I used the dough ball to open into a skin.  To me, the dough ball didn’t look like it had loosened up enough, in the time I had it in the pizza prep fridge.  Maybe the colder temperatures of the pizza prep fridge had something to do with gluten not being loose enough.

All in all this was a very tasty pie.  Steve, my taste testers and I all enjoyed it, even though it wasn’t perfectly shaped.


http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,14368.msg144967.html#msg144967

Norma

I found fresh wheat grain (wheat berries) to use in trying to make a pizza!..will try to grind it into flour...

Well, I guess today was my lucky day to find wheat!  I had called my Amish friend, and told him about the farmer yesterday and he said he couldn’t believe how bad the farmer treated me.  I told him I was almost afraid to stop at another farm and ask if maybe they would sell me some wheat.  He told me he would ask a friend of his to get me some wheat when the combine comes though the area where he lives.

On the way to market (to mix my preferment for the Lehmann dough) I drove on a couple back roads to see if I could see any combines.  I didn’t see any, but when I was almost at market, I saw a combine cutting down something, but wasn’t sure what is was.  I saw a lady outside working on her flowers, so I decided to stop and ask her if it was wheat or barley the combine was consuming.  She told me it was wheat.  I told her about me wanting to buy some fresh cut wheat to try in a pizza dough.  She said if wasn’t her land in back of the farm, but would give me the number of the farmer to call.  I called and got their answering machine and left a message.  While I was at market mixing the preferment and cleaning, my cell phone rang.  It was the farmers wife and we talked awhile.  The farmer does also work at Root’s in the animal auction.  The farmers wife said she had talked to her husband and it was okay with him if I got a bucket of wheat right from the combine.  She said she didn’t know how I would climb up to the trailer that was sitting at the farm, but if I couldn’t get any, her husband would bring me some to market Tuesday.  I waited until the combine was filled and came back to the trailer to unload.  I told the combine driver that the farmer said I could have a bucket of wheat.  He quicky climbed out of his cab and got me a bucket of wheat in less than  ½ minute.  I was so happy the farmer was so nice and I did get wheat.  I did taste the wheat. The fresh bucket of wheat does make my place smell great!

It can be seen on the pictures how close the farm is to market.  It is almost right across the street.  I guess it pays to go to work some days, even if you aren’t getting paid money.

Now to dry the wheat some more and find a formula to try.  The formula will have to be for whole wheat, because I sure don’t have any idea of knowing how to make white flour from the wheat.  Any suggestions for a good formula for my wheat?

I did take one video of the combine cutting down the wheat that went in my bucket.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ7ZUKJdHA0

Norma

On the Hunt for some Wheat in my area to try and make Pizza Dough..I guess it would be called really fresh flour! 6/29/2011

I have been trying to find out in our area what are wheat fields and what are barley fields.  I think I have that figured out, but I asked an Amish friend on Tuesday, if his family ever tried to use the wheat from their fields to make their own flour and then try it to make bread or pizza.  My Amish friend said no, they never tried that. The Amish friend I asked lives about an 1 ½ hrs. from me.  I asked him if I found a farmer in my area that was willing to let me cut some wheat, if I could then thresh the wheat to get the chaff off, then grind the wheat berries in my little Cuisinart spice and nut grinder to make some flour to try for one pizza to see what would happen.  He told me the easiest thing to do was watch for a combine to be cutting down the wheat and then ask for a bucket to try.  He said usually a combine driver will give someone a bucket.  The wheat in our area is winter wheat and it is soon ready to be harvested.  My Amish friend said combines should start cutting the wheat fields around July 4th.  I now need to watch for where the combines will be, because there are many fields or either wheat or barley near where I live.  Barley is usually harvested first.

I have no idea it will work or not, or even if I exactly know when a combine is cutting wheat.

In this link it explains how combines harvest wheat. http://www.explainthatstuff.com/howcombineharvesterswork.html

I don’t know if I should try watching for the combines or should just try to get a farmer to sell me wheat right from the field and cut it down myself and do the threshing.

This is only website where I looked at how to make flour from wheat.
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Flour


Since my Amish friend told me Tuesday that combines would soon be coming though the my area and might give me a bag of already threshed wheat, I went out looking today, to see if any combines were near me.  I first stopped at a roadside stand to pick up some fresh tomatoes and saw they had wheat fields, so I asked the girl behind the roadside stand, if her father grew the wheat near their home.  She said yes.  Her father wasn’t around, but she took my number for her father to call me about if I could purchase some wheat that already went though the combine.

I drove down another little side road and saw a combine must have just gone though that field.  I stopped because I saw fire trucks coming.  I then pulled over into a little parking lot of another farm.  It seems like the machine that bails the straw (after the combine comes though, caught the small pieces of straw stems on the ground on fire).  I watched that action for a little while and then walked down to where I thought the farmer might be.  I talked to another farmer and he said he was there to buy the straw, for bedding and other things.  I asked him if he knew where the combine had gone next.  He said the combine had gone down to the next farm to cut the wheat.  I went down to the next farm and sure enough, the combine was there.  I looked for the farmer, but couldn’t find him, so I walked over to where the combine was loading the grain on a truck.  I talked to the one combine driver and about purchasing some fresh grain and he said I would have to talk to the farmer, but the combine driver said he would gladly give me a bag of fresh cut grain if the farmer said it was okay.  I searched for the farmer and finally found him at another barn on his property.  Little did I know what a pain he would be..lol   I asked him if he was the farmer that owned the land and he said, yes.  I asked him if I could purchase a bag of the fresh cut grain.  He said he wouldn’t sell me any.  He then asked me if I had interrupted the combine drivers, and I said yes, but they weren’t cutting grain, but were just sitting in the combine transferring grain.  He then went on this big rant of how much he pays the combine drivers to cut his wheat (160.00 an hr.)  I said I didn’t think I had disturbed the drivers, since they were just sitting in the combine talking. The farmer then went on another big rant about to getting off his farm property and never to come back again.  Whew!!  I did buy things from their roadside stand many times, but I won’t be buying anything there anymore.  I told him I never thought he would get so upset about me just asking questions.  That was enough of that.  I will watch again to see what farm the combine might be going to, or might try to buy some wheat right from the field.   I don’t know if I will be successful or not, but I will try.


Well, I continued my adventure later this afternoon by walking out a back road from where I live.  I wanted to see if the fields out there had barley or wheat in the fields.  The first field, I think  was barley that was planted.  I then passed that farm house and had thought about talking to the farmer that live there, but no one was home.  I then continued out the road until I came upon another field.  I think the field had wheat planted.  At least it looked that way to me.  I picked a few to take home to compare my other wheat to.  I then walked further out the road and there were some more wheat fields.  I didn’t get to talk to anymore farmers about if I can purchase some wheat, but might in the next few days.  I did see at the one farm where a White Oak Mills truck was parked.

The girl from the roadside stand called me this evening and said she had talked to her father about me purchasing some of their wheat when the combine comes.  She said her father told her his wheat isn’t the best this year because all the rain and it might not make good flour because of a mold problem.  She said her father gave her another farmers name to give to me, that might be willing to sell me some of his good wheat.  I asked the farmers name and phone number, and then asked where the farmer lived.  Here is was the same farmer that gave me a hard time today.  I told the girl I already was at that farm today and the farmer wouldn’t sell me any wheat from the combine.  The asked the girl if her father has any other farmers names that might be willing to sell me wheat, to call me again.

So the journey for some wheat continues......   I would think it would be easy to get some wheat to try in my area, but it might not be.  Only time will tell.

More pictures of wheat fields out the road from where I live, Two of the pictures are of a barley field and barley.  At least that is what I think they are.  At least I had a nice walk looking for wheat.

Norma