Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Wheat prices fall -- perhaps time to buy

One of the staples for any serious food storage plan is wheat. During the past few years, wheat prices have climbed, due primarily to increased fuel costs and increased plantings of corn for biofuel. With the downturn in the economy, and the lowering of gasoline prices, one small benefit is lower wheat prices. I saw an ad recently for wheat in 50 lb bags for less than $20 a bag.

One thing I have found about the availability of wheat and not flour, is that it not particularly available on the Internet. It is best to look for local suppliers. The prices on the Web are as high as $46 or more for 50 lbs and $69 for 45 lbs plus shipping. Sometimes the grain is referred to as "wheat berries" especially in the context of seed wheat. To find bulk wheat for sale, you may wish to start asking local farmers and feed stores about the availability in your area.

We used to buy directly from the farmers, although the wheat needed to be cleaned since it was often full of weed seeds and other extraneous substances but at that time we were paying only about $6 for 100 lbs. We usually bought in bulk by organizing a number of people to buy at the same time. Cleaning the wheat was not too difficult in smaller batches.

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