How Long Does It Take To Cook Wheat Berries

The focus of this article is to equate the amount of flour you would need to make homemade bread. Based on number of loaves per week, and the number of months to store ahead.

I have updated this article a few times. Today I'm adding a chart / table which some of you may appreciate. It illustrates number of loaves per week form 1 to 7, versus storing enough flour for 1, 3, 9, or 12 months. It adds up fast!

Some time ago I polled our audience to discover how many loaves of bread they consume each week in their household. Based on the results we can work out a few things for general preparedness.

1. How much flour storage to make your own bread
2. How much wheat storage to make your own bread

From those who responded the majority go through 1 loaf of bread each week.

1.0 loaf (64%)
1.5 loaves (19%)
2.0 loaves (8%)
2.5 loaves (5%)
3+ loaves (4%)

Pounds of Flour To Make Bread

To maintain consumption of bread during a time when using flour you've purchased:

The following is the approximate amounts of FLOUR you will need to buy:

Numbers are rounded up:

3 months flour storage to make bread at home

1 loaf per week = 12 pounds of flour (3) 5-pound bags
2 loaves per week = 23 pounds of flour (5) 5-pound bags
3 loaves per week = 35 pounds of flour (7) 5-pound bags

1 year flour storage to make bread at home

1 loaf per week = 51 pounds of flour (10) 5-pound bags
2 loaves per week = 101 pounds of flour (20) 5-pound bags
3 loaves per week = 152 pounds of flour (30) 5-pound bags

How many loaves of bread will 5 pounds of flour make?

about 5 loaves

How many pounds of flour in a loaf of bread?

about 1 pound

(This will certainly vary. Some store-bought bread loaves weigh next to nothing and are filled with air! While others certainly weigh more. For homemade bread, I'm using 1 pound of flour for example. That's a good size loaf of bread!)

Okay, I'll insert my most recent update here. I added more data to include making lots more bread. Why? Because although the average number of bread loaves (according to the reader poll) is only between one and two loaves per week, a time of 'collapse' (SHTF?) may or will result in more loaves of bread! That's assuming you have enough flour or wheat berries stored…

Note that the assumption here for this data set, is 1 LB flour per loaf of bread. That makes a big loaf using about 3.5 cups flour. We use less than that, just because. I'd say about 2.5 cups.

Factoid: There's about 18 cups of flour in a 5 LB bag.

Pounds Of Flour To Store versus #Bread-Loaves & Months of Storage

7 loaves/wk	30	91	182	273	364
6 loaves/wk	26	78	156	234	312
5 loaves/wk	22	65	130	195	260
4 loaves/wk	17	52	104	156	208
3 loaves/wk	13	39	78	117	156
2 loaves/wk	9	26	52	78	104
1 loaf/wk	4	13	26	39	52

months	1	3	6	9	12

[ Read: Food Storage For 1 Year ]

Pounds of Wheat Berries for Diy Bread

If you mill your own flour, to maintain your current consumption of bread during a time when you're drawing on your deep pantry food storage:

The following are the approximate amounts of WHEAT BERRIES you will need:

3 Months Wheat Berries Storage to make homemade bread

(loaves per week = lbs of wheat)
1 = 12 pounds of wheat berries
2 = 25 pounds of wheat berries
3 = 37 pounds of wheat berries

1 Year Wheat Berries Storage to make homemade bread

(loaves per week = lbs of wheat)
1 = 54 pounds (1.6) 5-gallon buckets
2 = 108 pounds (3.3) 5-gallon buckets
3 = 162 pounds (4.9) 5-gallon buckets

Note: Wheat berries versus milled flour for long term storage. Wheat berries shelf life will be decades if stored properly. Wheat berries can easily store for 20+ years (and longer!) if stored properly. Once wheat is milled into flour, rule of thumb is you're looking at about 1 year (more or less) for optimum results.

Hard White Wheat Berries (24-pound bag)
(view on amzn)

My electric flour mill:
NutriMill Classic

My hand grain mill:
Country Living Mill

[ Read: Choosing The Best Hand Grain Mill (Flour Mill) ]

Weights & Measures

The following are my measured quantities:

5.2 ounces flour per cup
6.65 ounces wheat berries per cup

3 cups flour for typical homemade bread loaf
2.5 cups wheat berries mill to approx. 3 cups flour

15.6 ounces flour per loaf
16.6 ounces wheat berries per loaf

33 lbs wheat berries 5 gallon bucket
79 cups wheat berries in 5 gallon bucket

25 to 32 loaves of bread per 5 gallon bucket (depending on loaf)

[ Read: An Electric Flour Mill For Your Own Homemade Breads ]

[ Read: Recommended Break Maker for Do-it-yourself ]