[CottonBall]

Hope you don't mind my jumping in here, since wheat is one thing I finally have a little bit of experience with ;) Hard wheat is for baking bread (makes all those nice gluten thingies) Soft wheat would be for biscuits or cakes.

I bought some red and white hard wheat to compare and play with my new grain mill. I can't hardly tell the difference between the loaves I make with each. So if one is cheaper, I'd go with that.

I am so grateful for all the info on this thread, yet I feel so inadequately prepared. We have 6 1/2 acres w/woods, a creek, and an area for pasture and thought we could be self-sufficient if we needed to.

Sounds like an excellent situation to me! Better than what we have. But we're not likely to move unless it's unsafe here, so we'll deal with the cards we have. There's some books out there (like the Survivor Club or something like that) that talk about how various personality types have survived difficult situations. Perhaps if you'd read something like that and can get into the right mindset first. I'm finding it impossible to plan for everything and accumulate enough 'stuff'. So I'm hoping a flexible attitude and willingness to accept reality no matter how ugly will make up for some of the lack of preparation and perfect location.

[Marmolade]

“Hope you don’t mind my jumping in here,”

Not at all. Is bulgar wheat different from hard and soft wheat? I noticed there were recipes a while back using bulgar. (or is it not wheat?)

“Sounds like an excellent situation to me!”
My parents thought we moved to Iowa when we moved west from the city about 20 years ago, but the developments have just kept spreading. So now I guess we worry about the townsfolk around us. We were “in the country” when we moved here. Everything has built up around us.