3rd graders grow wheat and make their own flour

From: "Janet Bostwick"

>Newsgroups: alt.bread.recipes >Subject: Re: Kitchen-Aid vs Kitchen-Aid >Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 21:45:46 -0700 > >"Dick Margulis" wrote: >> >> "barry" wrote: >>> >>> I'm no expert, but I think Dick M has posted some good information on >>> ageing flour. Something to do with flour being better if it's allowed to >>> sit for a period of time after it's been milled. I forget what the time >>> is, but I think I remember it being a week or more. >> >> Actually, it was Janet who set me straight and Roy who elaborated further. >> Freshly milled flour (as in just now) is fine. The problem starts after a >> couple of days. > >I think if you Google Groups then alt.bread.recipes and then search for >"Green Flour" you'll find most of the postings. The short answer is that >the flour is good to use immediately after milling then within a couple of >days it is not and you have to wait for the flour to age before it can be >used for bread baking. > >Janet

Each week, the Boston Globe works with a different school class or group of kids between the ages of 7 and 12 to produce text and images for a four-page mini-newspaper calleed "Fun Pages" which is included with the comic section of the Boston Sunday Globe.

This week, the "editorial team" was class of third graders who wrote about their experiences growing their own wheat and milling it into flour to make bread. The following is excerpted from their "Fun Pages" edition.

The web site address referenced at the end has more detailed information on the class project along with some nice photos and teachers' commentary.

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The Boston Sunday Globe Fun Pages March 13, 2005

Reaching young readers at home and school. Created by kids for kids.

This week's editors: L. D. Batchelder School Grade 3 North Reading, Massachusetts

Field to Plate

What?s in a loaf of bread? The ingredients are wheat flour and a little water, salt, and yeast. Yeast makes a gas that leaves little holes in the bread.

Have you ever wondered where the wheat in your bread comes from? It is grown in 40 states around the country, such as Kansas and North Dakota. The United States grows more than two trillion bushels of wheat a year.

In the Midwest, wheat farms stretch for miles and miles. Farmers plant wheat in the spring and the fall. When the wheat is ready to harvest, giant lawnmower-like machines (called combines) cut the stalks and remove the wheat seeds.

Later the wheat seeds are carried by trucks to big grain elevators in nearby towns. The wheat is tested and stored there until needed. Then trucks and railroads move the wheat to the flour mills.

Flour mills grind the wheat into whole wheat or white flour. Some mills are owned by big bakeries, which make and wrap the bread right there. Delivery trucks take it to the supermarkets. Other flour mills bag the flour and ship it to smaller bakeries all over the country.

The fresh bread on your plate today may have come from a field more than 1,500 miles from your home.

Bread from Your Backyard

Did you know you can get bread from your backyard? We made bread from wheat we grew in our school yard. Here?s how you can do it, too.

You?ll need an 8-foot-square garden to grow enough wheat to make one loaf of bread. Start by digging up the soil and adding lots of cow manure. Get a quarter-pound of hard winter wheat seeds from a health food store. In mid-September, scatter the seeds over your garden and rake a little soil over them. They will start to grow, then rest for the winter, and begin to grow again in the spring.

It will be time to harvest in late June, when the wheat stalks and seed heads turn golden brown. Cut off the seed heads a few at a time with scissors and then put them in a large plastic jar with eight, large, clean iron bolts. Screw on the top and shake hard until the seeds come loose. Pour everything but the bolts into a large, flat bowl. Then blow and shake off the chaff. This is the seed covering separated from the seed in the threshing. Then, grind the wheat into flour in a clean coffee mill or food processor. Follow a recipe for making bread.

For details, visit our class website:

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Cheers, The Old Bear

Reply to
The Old Bear
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What a terrific idea!!! I think that it is great when children can learn by doing. It might just make them appreciate the amount of work and effort it takes to get the bread that they eat everyday. I wonder what other things they could do so that they could appreciate it more?

Reply to
jacquie0

Thanks for Posting this. The Boston Globe is a daily read, but I probably fluffed right by the Comic section. I have a 3rd grade grandson who loves my bread but has no interest in its development.

I truly enjoyed reading, and thought what a wonderful project,,

Rina

Reply to
Rina

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