The way I love Meadowlark Organics! They produce a wild variety of amazing flours and grains, and they do fantastic work in educating the Midwest community about the resiliency of the grains we know and love as well as those we do not!
Millet flour lends itself well to pudding - might work as a filling for baked goods, too. I only have a handwritten recipe in German for my fav, though (and don‘t have it on me right now) … It‘s just millet flour cooked stirred into simmering apple cider (a process similar to polenta making), then cooled completely and gently mixed with stiffly whipped cream.
This is such awesome intel, thank you so much, Petrina! Rye/shortbread makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. Love that idea. And omg, I had no idea about millet flour lending itself to pudding - what a cool insight! My mind is sort of blown about the apple cider / whipped cream / millet combo. I've got to try that. Thank you so much for the delicious ideas!
Great question, Tammela! I looked into spelt in 2023 and fascinatingly, a study found that spelt really struggles under drought conditions (more so than wheat), and so doesn't make a strong contender for a drought-tolerant substitute. FWIW, the same study found that buckwheat holds up way better than wheat under drought, in contrast. I just talked to some researchers at UNH that are working on developing a super climate-resilient buckwheat that'll work in the Northeast, it's like a decade or more out from being ready. I'm still learning about 'normal' buckwheat and its climate resilience in the US, which is why I haven't (yet) included it in my list of climate-resilient US grains.
Thank you, Caroline - that's really interesting to learn. I live in Germany and spelt ("Dinkel") flour/bread/etc is very common here. There is also quite a lot of rye, though, and other ancient grains like Emmer.
Oh that's so interesting, Tammela. I'm jealous of your German breads... my family is German, but I've not spent more than like 12 hours in the country.. I hope to go back and explore the baked goods scene one day! Please enjoy the rye and Emmer and Dinkel for me!
The way I love Meadowlark Organics! They produce a wild variety of amazing flours and grains, and they do fantastic work in educating the Midwest community about the resiliency of the grains we know and love as well as those we do not!
Oh that's so cool to know! I've gotta look into them more!
Since you are asking for experience with these wheat flour alternatives, I have been experimenting a bit over the years. Here are 2 results:
I really like how rye enhances shortbread, as in this recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/8507676/brown-sugar-and-rye-shortbread/
Millet flour lends itself well to pudding - might work as a filling for baked goods, too. I only have a handwritten recipe in German for my fav, though (and don‘t have it on me right now) … It‘s just millet flour cooked stirred into simmering apple cider (a process similar to polenta making), then cooled completely and gently mixed with stiffly whipped cream.
This is such awesome intel, thank you so much, Petrina! Rye/shortbread makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. Love that idea. And omg, I had no idea about millet flour lending itself to pudding - what a cool insight! My mind is sort of blown about the apple cider / whipped cream / millet combo. I've got to try that. Thank you so much for the delicious ideas!
Happy to help, and I can't wait to see what you make of it!
What about spelt flour?
Great question, Tammela! I looked into spelt in 2023 and fascinatingly, a study found that spelt really struggles under drought conditions (more so than wheat), and so doesn't make a strong contender for a drought-tolerant substitute. FWIW, the same study found that buckwheat holds up way better than wheat under drought, in contrast. I just talked to some researchers at UNH that are working on developing a super climate-resilient buckwheat that'll work in the Northeast, it's like a decade or more out from being ready. I'm still learning about 'normal' buckwheat and its climate resilience in the US, which is why I haven't (yet) included it in my list of climate-resilient US grains.
Study on spelt: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/367254362_Could_buckwheat_and_spelt_be_alternatives_to_wheat_under_future_environmental_conditions_Study_of_their_physiological_response_to_drought
Research into tartary buckwheat: https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/tartary-buckwheat-climate-resilient-crop
Thank you, Caroline - that's really interesting to learn. I live in Germany and spelt ("Dinkel") flour/bread/etc is very common here. There is also quite a lot of rye, though, and other ancient grains like Emmer.
Oh that's so interesting, Tammela. I'm jealous of your German breads... my family is German, but I've not spent more than like 12 hours in the country.. I hope to go back and explore the baked goods scene one day! Please enjoy the rye and Emmer and Dinkel for me!
Love a Kernza shoutout!!