I wouldn't use that wheat at all. I have never found anything in food quality wheat except an occasional husk that didn't come off of the berry.

I wouldn't stand for all that debris either!!
I've occasionally found some foreign material (rocks, stems) but nothing like that. Maybe one piece in 10-15 lbs. of wheat. Can you call the place you bought from and ask if that's normal?

I can't help much with the biscuits, but soft wheat has less gluten and used as pastry flour, you may need to adjust your recipe accordingly. I would think pastry flour would be perfect for biscuits though.

Deanna

Thanks for the input. I thought it was pretty bad, based on what I was used to with the Prairie Gold. Like you, Soonergrandmom, I've only every found an rare husk that didn't come all the way off the berry.

Deanna, I have emailed the place I ordered from and asked if they consider this normal. Their hard white wheat seems to be low in protein, too, so I've asked about that, too. Maybe I just need to go back to getting Wheat Montana products that I have to special order, then drive over an hour to pick up. Better to deal with the inconvenience than substandard grain... This stuff is organic and delivers locally every 2 weeks, which is nicer, but I'll have to see what they have to say about the quality I can expect.

It's obviously not been triple-cleaned, and to me that's a MUST when someone sells you food-grade wheat. It looks like it came straight out of the combine hopper, or nearly so. All you are lacking in the picture are the green wings of beetles, an occasional June Bug, and a few cricket legs in your wheat. We winnowed wheat once when a friend gave us some of his prize hard winter white wheat straight from the combine. Hubby laughed as he picked out bug parts, saying how this really wasn't vegan-friendly....but that's another story.

Soft wheat is low-protein (low-gluten). It should have worked fine for biscuits, in fact it's preferred. Your dough was wet because of the lower amount of protein in the grain/flour than the flour you usually use. If you are accustomed to using high-protein wheat (Prairie Gold) in your recipe, or even all-purpose flour, then you will need to either decrease the liquid or increase the amount of flour, adding enough flour until it's the right "feel" for biscuit dough.

Obviously, this flour won't work for yeast breads because of the low-gluten (soft wheat is always low-protein). Use it for pastry, cakes and quick breads, and even then you may need to adjust the amount of flour because I suspect it has even less protein than all-purpose flour and most recipes call for all-purpose.

If you want to do a protein check, place 2-3/4 c. of the flour (slightly packed - drag the measuring cup up the side of the container when leveling) in the bowl of a food processor with the steel knife attachment, and add 1 c. of water. Process for about 30 seconds. If the mixture forms a sticky dough ball in the food processor, then the flour is around 8% protein, or the equivalent to cake flour.

If it forms a ball using 2-1/2 c. of flour slightly packed - drag the measuring cup up the side of the container when leveling) then it's about 10% protein, or the equivalent to all-purpose flour.

For high-protein bread flour (around 14% protein) it takes 2-cups (slightly packed - drag the measuring cup up the side of the container when leveling) + 1 T.

-Grainlady

Thank you, Grainlady, for weighing in and helping me out. I see now that I should've trusted my instinct for the feel of the biscuit dough, like I do for bread.

It's good to know the view of this messy wheat from those of you with more experience. I'm glad I didn't buy huge amounts! Not that 25 pounds of junk is good...but it's better than 50.

I didn't expect to use the soft wheat for bread...It is the hard white wheat I got at the same time whose protein level that seems low. I asked them if they have a standard they test for, and from the looks of the wheat, I don't think they do. I haven't run the food processor test, which you graciously told me about before, but I recognized the signs in my sandwich bread dough and adjusted accordingly by adding potato, more vital wheat gluten, and using longer sponge and rise times.

I'm now making some rise-for-days artisan type breads, so I'm not sure how to adapt those to the lower protein wheat. I don't want them to be as soft as the sandwich bread, or get gummy from too much vital wheat gluten. But maybe the latter is only a concern with protein-adequate flour?

Thank you, Grainlady, for weighing in and helping me out. I see now that I should've trusted my instinct for the feel of the biscuit dough, like I do for bread.

It's good to know the view of this messy wheat from those of you with more experience. I'm glad I didn't buy huge amounts! Not that 25 pounds of junk is good...but it's better than 50.

I didn't expect to use the soft wheat for bread...It is the hard white wheat I got at the same time whose protein level that seems low. I asked them if they have a standard they test for, and from the looks of the wheat, I don't think they do. I haven't run the food processor test, which you graciously told me about before, but I recognized the signs in my sandwich bread dough and adjusted accordingly by adding potato, more vital wheat gluten, and using longer sponge and rise times.

I'm now making some rise-for-days artisan type breads, so I'm not sure how to adapt those to the lower protein wheat. I don't want them to be as soft as the sandwich bread, or get gummy from too much vital wheat gluten. But maybe the latter is only a concern with protein-adequate flour?

Hmm....identical messages showing up days apart. Sorry, I was dumb and used the back arrow on my browser and re-sent.

Anyway, I heard back from the wheat vender...

Re the low protein of the hard white wheat:
They don't test their wheat for protein content, and 'know of no set standard for protein levels.' I know that Wheat Montana and King Arthur Flour cite protein levels, so I assume they set their own standards and test?

Re the debris in my soft white wheat:
They told me that they use a screening process that makes it difficult to remove objects that are about the same size as the wheat berries. Their goal is to have less than 1/10 of 1 % of foreign material, but I have way more than that, which the customer service rep told me is 'unusual, but it happens.'

I think I'll just go back to ordering from Wheat Montana.

Update: The customer service rep spoke without full knowledge. Thankfully, he forwarded my last email on to someone in the know who corrected him, saying they certainly do test their wheat for proper protein levels, and do NOT find wheat like I received to be acceptable. Apparently a few bags were taken out of a batch they'd rejected and were unintentionally sent out. It seems I may be able to order from them in the future with some confidence that I will receive a much cleaner and acceptable product.

Note to self: Always save the lot number of my grains in case there is ever a problem I need to report!

They should be replacing what you ordered at their expense.
Did they offer to do that?
That would go a long way with me in feeling confident that they are concerned with customer service.
Mistakes do happen, but something like "shipping out rejects" should be corrected immediately!
I hope they resolve to your satisfaction.

Deanna

No offer like that yet. Supposedly the last 'accidental shipments' they know of were 'back in the fall,' and mine was sent out Feb 1, so it seems unlikely to be related, but hard to know. I haven't heard back about their intentions regarding my situation, but I feel badly that I don't have the label they needed to track down what happened. For one thing, I would've liked to know the specific explanation before I order any more wheat from them.

I also hope they've learned a lesson about letting someone answer questions who doesn't know what he's talking about! His first response to me couldn't have been more wrong.