Sorghum

Sorghum is probably more widely known here in the States for the syrup made from the juice squeezed from the canes of one of its many varieties. Also widely called “milo”, it is one of the principle cereal grains grown in Africa. Its seeds are somewhat round, a little smaller than peppercorns, with an overall brown color with a bit of red and yellow mixed in. The varieties called “yellow endosperm sorghum” have a better taste. Sorghum is a major feed grain in the Southwestern part of the U.S. and is where the vast majority of the national milo production goes to. Like most of the other grains, sorghum is low in gluten, but the seeds can be milled into flour and mixed with higher gluten flours or made into flat breads, pancakes or cookies. In the Far East, it is cooked and eaten like rice, while in Africa it is ground in meal for porridge. It’s also commonly brewed into alcoholic beverages.

Triticale

Triticale is not a creation sprung whole from the foreheads of Star Trek script writers. It is, in fact, a cross or hybrid between wheat and rye. This youngest grain combines the productivity of wheat with the ruggedness of rye and has a high nutrition value. Triticale kernels are gray-brown, oval shaped larger-than-wheat kernels and plumper than rye. It will make a raised bread like wheat flour will, but the gluten is a bit weak so wheat flour is frequently added to strengthen it. Because of the delicate nature of its gluten, excessive kneading must be avoided. This grain can be used in much the same way wheat or rye is. Although it is the youngest of the grains, it’s been around for some years now. For reasons I’ve never understood, triticale has never achieved much popularity. Whether this is for reasons of agricultural production or public acceptance I don’t know.

Legume Varieties

Unless a person is willing to spend a great deal of money on preserved meats, a food storage program not including a quantity of legumes is simply incomplete. There are few non-animal foods that contain the amount of protein to be found in dried beans, peas, and lentils. The varieties commonly available in this country have protein contents ranging from 20%-35%. As with most non-animal proteins, they are not complete in themselves for purposes of human nutrition, but become so when they are combined with the incomplete proteins found in grains. It is for this reason that grains and legumes are so often mentioned together. In cultures all over the world, it is common to find the two served together at a meal, making a complete protein, even when those doing the serving have no understanding of nutrition at all.

The legume family, of which all beans, peas, lentils,and peanuts are a part of, is one of the largest in the plant kingdom. Because of this and the many thousands of years of development and cultivation that man has given them, the variety of edible legumes available to us is huge. Both the appearance and the names of legume varieties are colorful and varied. The names range from “adzuki” beans, a type of soybean from the Orient, to “zipper” peas, a commonly found field pea here in the Southern U.S. The color of the beans can range from a clean white, to deep red, dull green to flat black with thousands of mixtures and patterns of colors. In spite of this incredible variety of names and colors, legumes are largely interchangeable in cooking usage, although some dishes just wouldn’t be the same if a different type was used. Below is a partial list of some of the more commonly eaten bean varieties here in the U.S.

Black Beans

Also known as turtle beans, these small, dark-brownish black, oval-shaped beans are well known in Cuban black bean soup. They are very commonly used in Central and South America and in China. They tend to bleed very darkly when cooked so they are not well suited to being combined with other beans, lest they give the entire pot a muddy appearance.

Black-Eyed Pea

Although there is tremendous variation among the many varieties of field peas eaten throughout the Southern United States, it is black-eyed peas that are the most commonly known nationwide. The coloring of field peas is as varied as the rest of the legume family, with black-eyed peas being small and oval-shaped with an overall creamy color and, of course, their distinctive black-eye. Dried field peas cook very quickly and combine very tastily with either rice or cornbread.

Chickpeas

Also known as the garbanzo bean or cecci pea (or bean), it tends to be a creamy or tan color, rather lumpily roundish and larger than dried garden peas. Many have eaten chickpeas, even if they’ve never seen a whole one. They are the prime ingredient in hummus and falafel and are one of the oldest cultivated legume species known, going back as far as 5400 B.C. in the Near East.

Kidney Beans

Just like the rest of the family, kidney beans can be found in wide variety. They come in both light and dark red color in their distinctive kidney shape. Probably best known here in the U.S. for their use in chili, they figure prominently in Mexican, Brazilian and Chinese cuisine.

 Lentils

Lentils are an odd lot. They don’t fit in with either the beans or the peas and occupy a place by themselves. Their shape is different from the other legumes being roundish little discs with colors ranging from muddy brown, to green to a rather bright orangish-red. They cook very quickly compared to the larger beans and have a distinctive flavor. They are much used in Far Eastern cuisine from Indian to Chinese.

Lima Beans

In the Southern U.S., they are also commonly called butter beans. They are one of the most common beans found in this country in all manner of preservation from the young small beans to the large fully mature type. Their flavor is pleasant, but a little bland. Their shape is rather flat and broad with colors ranging from pale green to speckled cream and purple.

Peanuts

The peanut, commonly known outside the U.S. as the groundnut, is not actually a nut at all, but a legume. Peanuts are another odd species not much like the more familiar beans and peas. Whatever their their classification they are certainly not unfamiliar to U.S. eaters. Peanuts have a high protein percentage and even more fat. They are one of the two legume species commonly grown for oilseed in this country, and are also used for peanut butter, boiled and roasted peanuts. Many Central and South American, African and Chinese dishes incorporate peanuts so they are useful for much more than just a snack food or cooking oil.

Pinto Beans

Anyone who has eaten Tex-Mex food has probably had the pinto bean. It is one of the most commonly eaten beans in the U.S., particularly in the Southwestern portion of the country. Stereotypically bean shaped, it has a dappled pattern of tans and browns on its shell. Pintos have a flavor that blends well with many foods. When ground together with white or navy beans they make my favorite home-made version of falafel.

Soybeans

An entire university could be founded on the culinary and industrial uses of the soybean. It is by far the legume with the highest protein content in commercial production as well as being the other legume oilseed producer alongside the peanut. The beans themselves are small, and round with a multitude of different shades. Although the U.S. grows a very large percentage of the global supply of these beans, we actually consume virtually none of them directly. Most of them go into cattle feed, are used by industry or exported. What does get eaten directly has usually been processed in some form or fashion. Soybean products range from tofu, to tempeh, to textured vegetable protein and hundreds of other uses. Although they are very high in protein, they don’t lend themselves well to just being boiled until done and eaten the way other beans and peas do. For this reason, if you plan on keeping some as a part of your storage program (and you should) you would be well served to begin to learn how to process and prepare them now when you’re not under pressure to produce. That way you can throw out your mistakes and order pizza, rather than having to choke them down, regardless.

Types of Availability of Grains and Legumes

Grains and legumes of all types may be purchased in a number of different fashions depending largely on where you live and the time of year. If you should happen to live in the area where the type of grain or legume that you are interested in purchasing is grown you may be able to purchase direct from the producer or distributor.

If you are interested in doing this, you may be able to find what you want at any processing step along the way. The most basic form is called “field run” which means that it’s been harvested and sold shortly thereafter. It will not have been given any cleaning or processing and is likely to be rather dirty depending upon the conditions under which it was grown and harvested.

A second basic form called “field run from storage” is grain that has been harvested and then put into storage for a time. It will have all of the dirt and detritus of field run grain and whatever it may have picked up from the silo as well.

If you want cleaner grain you should look for “pre-cleaned” which means that it has been passed through fans, screens or sieves to remove chaff, smut balls, insect parts, mouse droppings and other debris.

For those of us who don’t live in an area that produces the grain and legumes that we’re interested in, we have to resort to the last type which is “pre-cleaned and pre-packaged”. This is grain that’s been harvested, cleaned and put up in bags or other containers-possibly even going so far as to already be packaged for long term storage.

Each of the above types of availability has its good and bad points. As you might expect, the more processing the product receives, the higher its price is likely to be. If you don’t mind doing a little cleaning and you need to be frugal with your cash, then field run grain is the way to go.

Important Note: If you have purchased your grains and legumes from a food store or a foods dealer then you needn’t worry about hidden mold infections, fungicides or insecticides that are unsafe for human consumption. In the U.S. the products will have been checked at least several times by Federal and State agriculture dept’s and probably by the major foods dealers as well, to insure its quality.

This is not necessarily the case when you purchase your grains or legumes direct from the farmer or elevator operator as field run or field run from storage grain. Nor is it necessarily the case if you’ve made the decision to utilize grains marketed as animal feed. Inspection procedures vary from nation to nation, so outside of the U.S. inquire of your supplier.

If you are buying your grains and legumes from some-place other than a food store then you need to know the history of what it is you are buying. Straight field run grain, other than being dirty, is not likely to have had anything added to it that would make it undesirable for human consumption. There is, however, the small possibility it may have been infected with molds that would make it unsafe for eating. Field run from storage and any grade of grain not specifically advertised for human consumption may have had fumigants, fungicides or insecticides not certified as safe for human foods added to it while it was in the bin. It is important to know what it has been treated with before you buy it.

There is a fungal infection of grain called “ergot”. It is attracted to rye more so than other grains, particularly if the growing conditions were damp where it was grown. This fungus causes a nervous disorder known as St. Anthony’s Fire. When eaten in large quantities the ergot alkaloids can cause constriction of the blood vessels, particularly in the extremities. The effects of ergot poisoning are cumulative and lead to numbness of the limbs and other, frequently serious symptoms.

This fungal disease affects only the flowering parts of some members of the grass family, mostly rye. The fungus bodies are hard, spur like, purple black structures that replace the kernel in the grain head. The ergot bodies can vary in size from the length of the kernel to as much as several times as long. They don’t crush as easily as smut bodies of other funguses. When they are cracked open, the inner broken faces are can be off-white, yellow, or tan. The infected grain looks very different from ordinary, healthy rye grains and can be spotted easily. Ergot only rarely affects other grains. If you purchase field run rye, you should closely examine it first for the presence of ergot bodies. If you find more than a very few, pass up that grain and look elsewhere.

Sometimes grain in the form of animal feed or seed grain/legumes is available. Keep in mind animal feeds may have a higher contaminant level than what is permissible for human consumption. Under certain circumstances, the USDA allows the sale of grain or legumes for animal feed that could not be sold for direct human consumption. If that feed is to be fed to non-lactating (non-dairy animals), they will sometimes allow an aflatoxin (a type of fungal mycotoxin) content of five times what is permissible for use in human foodstuffs. It may even be mixed varieties of one grain and not all one type. Seed grains, in particular, must be investigated carefully to find out what they may have been treated with. It is quite common for seed to have had fungicides applied to them, and maybe other chemicals as well.

If you do purchase field run grain of any sort, examine it closely for contamination and moldy grain. Ask the farmer or distributor whether it has been tested for mold or mycotoxin content. This is especially the case if you are buying field-run CORN, RYE, SOYBEANS or RICE. When you purchase direct from the field, you may be getting it before it has been checked. Be certain of what it is that you are getting and ask questions if you choose to go this route. Know who you are dealing with. Unless you just can’t find any other source, I don’t recommend using animal feed or seed grains for human food.

Moisture Content

The moisture content of the grain or legume you want to purchase or grow has a major impact on how long you will be able to store it and have it remain nutritious and edible. Some of the information I have found says that grain with a moisture content as high as 12% can be safely put into long term storage, but there is a risk to storing grain at that moisture level that should be understood.

The outside of each and every kernel of grain or bean you buy or grow may host thousands of fungi spores and bacteria. This is all perfectly natural and is not a reason to panic. The problem lies in that at moisture levels between 13.5% to 15% some fungal species are able to grow and reproduce. Other species require a moisture level in the 16-23% range. Aerobic bacteria (oxygen using) require a moisture level of about 20%. Raw peanuts are particularly susceptible to Aspergillus mold growth that produces afltoxin and should be stored with an 8% moisture content or less.

Thus, if you have grain you want to store with a moisture content as high as 12% you are perilously close to having enough moisture to enable mold growth which could lead to the ruin of your grain. For this reason, I suggest keeping all grains and legumes to a moisture content of no more than 10%.

If you do not have a clue as to what the moisture level of your grain is here is a rough method to determine it.

Take 20 ounces of the grain or legumes in question from the middle of its bag or container (this needs to be an actual weighed twenty ounces and not estimated). Spread the grain in a large baking dish making sure it is not more than an inch deep. Heat at 180 F for about two hours, stirring occasionally. Allow the grain to cool where it won’t readsorb moisture, the oven will do. Once cool, reweigh the grain. A one ounce loss in weight indicates the grain had roughly a five percent moisture content, 2 ounces indicates that it has a 10% moisture content, etc, etc. You might even be able to cut it as fine as a half oz loss, but I wouldn’t try to take it further than that.

Obviously, this is only a rough measure, but it works and I don’t have a better idea that could be used by an individual in the home. If anyone has a better way of measuring moisture levels which can be done without a lab or special equipment I’d surely like to hear it.

Cleaning it Yourself

If you’ve chosen to purchase field-run grain or if the pre-cleaned product you’ve bought isn’t clean enough to suit you, you can do it yourself.

The fastest and easiest method is “fanning”, a form of winnowing. This is done by pouring the grain slowly through the air stream of a fan or blower into a clean, deep container such as a cardboard box or trash can. The wind blowing through the falling grain will blow out most of the broken kernels, chaff, smut balls, mouse droppings, etc. If you’re losing too much good grain, try turning the fan down or moving it further back from the container. The deep container will cut down on the amount of kernels that bounce out. Repeat fanning as necessary until the grain is clean enough to suit or you’ve blown all of the lighter contaminants out.

If the fanning didn’t get the grain clean enough then it can be further cleaned by running it through a screen or sieve. This should be made with holes just big enough to pass an average sized grain of what it is you’re cleaning. Obviously, the size of the holes will necessarily vary depending upon the kernel size of the grain.

Should the kernels still not be clean enough to suit then you’ll just have to resort to “hand picking” out the offending particles. I’d strongly suggest doing this just prior to grinding where it can be done in small batches rather than trying to do your entire storage all at once. It’s much easier to do a few pounds at a time than fifty or a hundred.

If you have it in mind to wash the grain, this should not be done prior to storage, but, rather, just before use. After it’s been rinsed, it should be dried immediately in the oven by placing it no deeper than 1/2 inch and heated at 150 F for an hour. It should be stirred occasionally to improve drying.