Small scale on-farm milling of wheat

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
Really interested in this Turkey Red Wheat as my wife has been diagnosed with a gluten allergy and is struggling to find a nice gluten free bread. Have made our own bread in the past so if Turkey Red Wheat works I would be interested in growing a few acres. Only trouble I see is finding seed in UK. Do you know whether the straw is suitable for thatching.
Warburton gluten free bread is pretty good.
Seeded farmhouse Loaf_0.jpg
 
Really interested in this Turkey Red Wheat as my wife has been diagnosed with a gluten allergy and is struggling to find a nice gluten free bread. Have made our own bread in the past so if Turkey Red Wheat works I would be interested in growing a few acres. Only trouble I see is finding seed in UK. Do you know whether the straw is suitable for thatching.
Why try this as all wheats have gluten so
your no better off with turkey red if you have an allergy. However if it is an intolerance then there is some evidence that the older wheats are less aggressive on the digestion.
 

renewablejohn

Member
Location
lancs
Why try this as all wheats have gluten so
your no better off with turkey red if you have an allergy. However if it is an intolerance then there is some evidence that the older wheats are less aggressive on the digestion.

Just going off the comment made by BTS in respect of Turkey Red being used by Gluten sufferers. If it does work then there is a growing market for it. Have the room and equipment to give it a trial in UK climate just require some seed.
 
Just going off the comment made by BTS in respect of Turkey Red being used by Gluten sufferers. If it does work then there is a growing market for it. Have the room and equipment to give it a trial in UK climate just require some seed.
Be very careful with any claim about gluten. No wheat is OK for a coeliac period. Coeliacs have a genetic condition which makes them unable to tolerate gluten.
Induced gluten intolerance is a completely different kettle of fish whereby exposure to excess gluten can cause certain problems.
 

BTS

Member
Location
Burns KS usa
Really interested in this Turkey Red Wheat as my wife has been diagnosed with a gluten allergy and is struggling to find a nice gluten free bread. Have made our own bread in the past so if Turkey Red Wheat works I would be interested in growing a few acres. Only trouble I see is finding seed in UK. Do you know whether the straw is suitable for thatching.

Hello, I am sorry to hear about your wife, I am not saying turkey red wheat will can be eaten by anyone with allergies but a lot of the times people think they have a allergy and they don't. They are more likely to be allergic to the sprays on the wheat and the new modern wheat verities it's self. I do not know much about thatching but if there would be any wheat straw that would work it would probably be the turkey red, it grows up to 5' tall and has a very thick heavy straw.

Here is a article I found from a turkey red wheat flour seller, I found it interesting to read, I hope it helps you.

http://www.sunriseflourmill.com/heritage-wheat-and-gluten-intolerance/
 

New Puritan

Member
Location
East Sussex
Be very careful with any claim about gluten. No wheat is OK for a coeliac period. Coeliacs have a genetic condition which makes them unable to tolerate gluten.
Induced gluten intolerance is a completely different kettle of fish whereby exposure to excess gluten can cause certain problems.

Yep. My girlfriend is coeliac, we got together just after I became a wheat farmer. She can't eat things labelled as "gluten free" if they contain oats, for example. Basically anything derived from wheat / barley / oats / rye is out, including Marmite and beer. Very harsh. Luckily she is, and always was prior to diagnosis, a cider drinker. She also helps me at the farm, rogueing wild oats in the wheat and cleaning the combine etc. - I am very lucky.

It's made me wonder if I could specialise in growing gluten free crops. I wonder if there would be a market for such things? So, for example, the combine would never be used for wheat etc. and provide reassurance to coeliacs that the whole chain (assuming the processors were similarly specialist) is free from gluten containing crops.
 

renewablejohn

Member
Location
lancs
Be very careful with any claim about gluten. No wheat is OK for a coeliac period. Coeliacs have a genetic condition which makes them unable to tolerate gluten.
Induced gluten intolerance is a completely different kettle of fish whereby exposure to excess gluten can cause certain problems.

My wife was only diagnosed in March and is really starting to struggle the longer she goes gluten free. Reading around the subject it appears the side effect of substituting processed GF products is an over supply of sugar. It has also made her lactose intolerant so have swapped to almond milk.
 

renewablejohn

Member
Location
lancs
Yep. My girlfriend is coeliac, we got together just after I became a wheat farmer. She can't eat things labelled as "gluten free" if they contain oats, for example. Basically anything derived from wheat / barley / oats / rye is out, including Marmite and beer. Very harsh. Luckily she is, and always was prior to diagnosis, a cider drinker. She also helps me at the farm, rogueing wild oats in the wheat and cleaning the combine etc. - I am very lucky.

It's made me wonder if I could specialise in growing gluten free crops. I wonder if there would be a market for such things? So, for example, the combine would never be used for wheat etc. and provide reassurance to coeliacs that the whole chain (assuming the processors were similarly specialist) is free from gluten containing crops.

Certainly a market as its surprising how many suffer. The figure quoted to my wife when she was diagnosed was 1 in 10 although most are unaware.
 
My wife was only diagnosed in March and is really starting to struggle the longer she goes gluten free. Reading around the subject it appears the side effect of substituting processed GF products is an over supply of sugar. It has also made her lactose intolerant so have swapped to almond milk.
Has she actually been confirmed as a coeliac or just intolerant?
 

New Puritan

Member
Location
East Sussex
Thinking about coeliac / gluten free... My girlfriend is fine with wheat grains and the growing plant, it's only once it has been processed into flour that it becomes an issue. She can absorb it through her skin - she used to use playdough at work (she works with children) until she found she had a reaction to it.

So actually a gluten-free farm wouldn't particularly make sense, as at the moment things sold as gluten free or suitable for coeliacs must have come from farms that also process gluten containing plants. And even if I were to stop growing them, there'd still be volunteers and wild oats etc.

This is a bit of a brain dump to be honest. I'm just always scheming on how I can make these 46 acres niche enough to justify the time and investment they seem to want to absorb.
 

renewablejohn

Member
Location
lancs
Then unfortunately no wheat flour is suitable. With intolerance then some older varieties seem to be more tolerated. However with your wife's condition it is better to have no flour in the house.

Steep learning curve but we do seem to be coping with a dual food kitchen without the need for being a flour free house.
 

renewablejohn

Member
Location
lancs
Thinking about coeliac / gluten free... My girlfriend is fine with wheat grains and the growing plant, it's only once it has been processed into flour that it becomes an issue. She can absorb it through her skin - she used to use playdough at work (she works with children) until she found she had a reaction to it.

So actually a gluten-free farm wouldn't particularly make sense, as at the moment things sold as gluten free or suitable for coeliacs must have come from farms that also process gluten containing plants. And even if I were to stop growing them, there'd still be volunteers and wild oats etc.

This is a bit of a brain dump to be honest. I'm just always scheming on how I can make these 46 acres niche enough to justify the time and investment they seem to want to absorb.

Thats why I was so interested in Turkey red wheat as it is so distinctive it would be easy to harvest without volunteers and wild oats.
 

MattR

Member
What about oats? I guess not as tricky as wheat to get the right spec etc, but I've done a bit of googling and can't find much evidence of farmers doing small-scale porridge production. Is it a complicated process?
 

conor t

Member
Yep. My girlfriend is coeliac, we got together just after I became a wheat farmer. She can't eat things labelled as "gluten free" if they contain oats, for example. Basically anything derived from wheat / barley / oats / rye is out, including Marmite and beer. Very harsh. Luckily she is, and always was prior to diagnosis, a cider drinker. She also helps me at the farm, rogueing wild oats in the wheat and cleaning the combine etc. - I am very lucky.

It's made me wonder if I could specialise in growing gluten free crops. I wonder if there would be a market for such things? So, for example, the combine would never be used for wheat etc. and provide reassurance to coeliacs that the whole chain (assuming the processors were similarly specialist) is free from gluten containing crops.
There is a growing area of gluten free oats for glanbia here. Seed drill, combine etc all dedicated to just oats. Not sure about rotation restrictions
 

The Ruminant

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Hertfordshire
Thinking about coeliac / gluten free... My girlfriend is fine with wheat grains and the growing plant, it's only once it has been processed into flour that it becomes an issue. She can absorb it through her skin - she used to use playdough at work (she works with children) until she found she had a reaction to it.

So actually a gluten-free farm wouldn't particularly make sense, as at the moment things sold as gluten free or suitable for coeliacs must have come from farms that also process gluten containing plants. And even if I were to stop growing them, there'd still be volunteers and wild oats etc.

This is a bit of a brain dump to be honest. I'm just always scheming on how I can make these 46 acres niche enough to justify the time and investment they seem to want to absorb.
I met a Canadian scholar whilst doing my Nuffield who had a business producing gluten free foods: here's a link:
http://nuffield.ca/scholar-profiles/kelvin-meadows-bio/
I believe it was / is massively profitable
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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