Sprouting Wheat Berries

What is a wheat berry?  I had to google it myself to be sure and here is what I found: 

A wheat berry is the entire wheat kernel, composed of the bran, germ, and endosperm.

Vitamix dry mix container.

Why take the time to soak, sprout, dry and grind wheat berries into flour?

Every seed has built in growth inhibitors that protect its viability until conditions are just right for it to grow. These growth inhibitors make the whole grain harder to digest and prevent our bodies from absorbing the vitamins and minerals in the grain.

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When seeds are sprouted there is an increase in the amount and bio-availability of some vitamins and minerals (especially vitamin C) and the starches become easier to digest.

I have wanted to try this out, but the idea of finding wheat berries, sprouting them, and grind them into flour seemed too intimidating.

Then came the Vitamix!  My husband and I stumbled upon an infomercial for the Vita-Mix and they were offering a dry blend container that could grind grain into flour.  I was sold!

The next challenge was how to source organic wheat berries.  On an out-of- the-way trip to Cambridge, MN I stumbled upon a wonderful co-op that sold organic wheat berries in bulk.  This was my chance to experiment!  I bought two kinds, one was for pastry flour the other a hard red wheat.  I purchased about a quart of the pastry flour berries and started my sprouting experiment with them.


After perusing the Internet I had the process figured out, now all I had to do was put it into practice.  The first step was to fill a half gallon jar about half full of wheat berries, rinse them with filtered water and then fill the jar full of water.  The rinsing is easiest if you use a sprouting lid with plastic mesh.  Then you simply pour the water out and the mesh keeps the berries in.

Wheat berries in water at the beginning of the process.

Just a side note on filtered water.  It took me a few years to figure out what kind of filter would work best for our family  I found the options numerous and confusing.  But determining exactly what we wanted to filter out helped with the decision making process.  Because we have well water, chlorine and fluoride were not a consideration.  Heavy metals, bacteria, industrial farming chemicals, and pharmaceutical waste were our primary concerns.  The Berkey system filters out these toxins and does it without using any electricity.  It also provides water security because it will filter lake or rain water into safe drinking water.  

Our Big Berkey with its handy spigot.

Next I allowed the berries soak for about 8 hours and then drained the water and gave them a quick rinse. 

Note how the grains swelled and filled the jar.

The berries need air to sprout, so I placed the jar on its side and let it sit on the table for about 16 hours, rinsing the berries 2 to 3 times during the 16 hour time period.

Laying the jar on its side provides maximum air exposure.

 When I saw small white shoots protruding from the ends of the berries the sprouting part of the process was done. (The length of time it takes a wheat berry to sprout is determined by many factors, it may take up to 24 hours for the sprouting to occur.)

See the tiny white "tails".

The next step was to dry the berries.  Some people suggest the use of an oven set at 150 degrees, but a dehydrator works even better.

Note the mesh jar top.

 I spread put four equal size piles on each tray and spread them out.

The mesh was just small enough that the berries didn't fall through.

The Excalibur brand makes a wonderful dehydrator that you can get with both a temperature setting and a timer.  I set the temperature at 150 degrees and the timer for 12 hours.  My instructions said that it could take 12 to 24 hours for the berries to dry.  After the 12 hours were up the berries were completely dry.

Some Excalibur models come with time and temperature controls. 

The berries are dry!

Since I had to go to work the next day, I put the whole berries in a quart jar and placed them in the refrigerator.  The Excalibur's plastic mesh drying sheets were super easy to fold in half creating a funnel of sorts to pour the berries directly into the jar.  It is recommended that you refrigerate sprouted grains and flours as the nutritional value can be depleted in a few days at room temperatures.

The final step was grinding the whole wheat grains into flour.  The dry mix Vitamix container worked great and some I had about 4 cups of fine whole wheat flour when the grinding was done.

Whole wheat flour.