Acres in a Loaf of Bread

Common Grain Alliance ^ | 2020 | Heather Coiner

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Last month I attended a meeting of the Virginia Grain Producer’s Association to learn more about how the vast majority of grain is produced. I had the pleasure of being accompanied by three other CGA members, and, inevitably, the topic of scale came up. The VGPA farmers think in thousands of acres; CGA producers may be working with 100 or less. One of the challenges of building up a regional food system of any sort is balancing supply with demand. So the calculators came out and numbers were crunched, and it made me realize I don’t have a good handle on how many buyers are needed to support the farmers we already have in our network, let alone new farmers. Plus, purely selfishly, I’ve always wanted to figure out how many acres of grain is required to support my little bakery.

There are a few factors that play into this calculation. First, how many bushels per acre will a farmer harvest? This depends on the type of grain, the farmer’s skill, growing practices, and Mother Nature. If we assume we are talking about wheat that is grown sustainably in an average year in the Mid-Atlantic, 40 bushels per acre seems to be a reasonable place to start. (The U.S. average in 2021 was around 52 bushels per acre). Second, there are harvest and cleaning losses. I have no idea how much is lost (which means you can look for a future post on this topic!) but I’ll be conservative and say 10% is lost. Third, the standard weight of a bushel of wheat is 60 pounds, or 27 kg.

At the mill, the grade of flour determines how many kg of flour you get from each kg of grain. If you have an excellent mill, you can get close to 100% conversion of grain to flour, called “extraction” in the trade. If you sift out some of the larger particles for a finer grade flour, you have losses. 80% extraction is common in a lot of bakeries, including mine. At this point, we can figure out how many pounds of flour a farmer can expect per acre.

40 bu/acre x 60 lb/bu x 0.9 harvest yield x 0.8 extraction = about 1,700 pounds flour

This goes up to about 2,100 pounds if the flour is not sifted (that is, there are no milling losses).

Additional factors at the bakery are the amount of flour in a loaf of bread, and the number of loaves baked in a year. At my bakery, most loaves use about 400 g of flour, or 0.9 pounds. We are tiny, and only operate 10 months (or 43 weeks) out of the year. But let’s say we have a great year and make 300 loaves per week during that time. My bakery then uses:

300 loaves/ wk x 43 weeks x 0.9 lb/loaf = 11,600 lb flour.

That means about 6.7 acres of wheat (11,600 lb flour / 1,700 lb flour/acre) will support my bakery for a year.

I am not sure what I was expecting, but seeing this tiny amount of land supporting a bakery that employs three full-time people triggers all kinds of thoughts and feelings. But one obvious implication is that the CGA network can absorb a lot more buyers. One hundred acres of wheat can produce 3700 loaves of bread a week. Because our farmers use sustainable practices, they only grow wheat once every three years, so with good soil health practices, you would need three 100 acre farms to produce that much. But still. That’s a lot of bread.

How many acres of grain will support your baking or processing activities?

[Svartalfiar]

Many people consume a 1 lb loaf of bread a day per person.

Wait, what? You might want to recheck your math. A pound of bread is what, a dozen slices? You think the average person eats five sandwiches a day, after having two pieces of toast for breakfast?!

Round here it usually takes 1-3 weeks for two adults to get through a single loaf of bread. I know we don't each much bread, but there's no way we could eat even half a loaf a day, each, nonstop...

[marktwain]

You don't eat much bread.

I never said "average" I said "many people". A 1 lb loaf of bread is only 1/2 the calories needed for an ordinary man. Doing hard work in weather under 57 degrees F, a man needs 4,500 calories, according to the U.S. military.

4-6 slices at breakfast is easy.

Another 4 slices at lunch, and 4 more with dinner for a farm family.

But, of course, this all depends on what else there is to eat. With lots of other food, less loaf bread is eaten. Grain in other forms is often substituted, rolls, doughnuts, bagels, cereal, crackers, etc.

But the discussion was about how much land was required to feed a family. Cereal crops are some of the most efficient for providing the calories necessary. In Medieval Europe, grain was converted to ale, later to beer. It provided lots of calories as well.

Other crops require more land. Growing crops in a subsistence manner is hard work, so it requires more calories.

[Ellendra]

Also, Popovers are a yummy treat, though you need a Popover Pan. HALF the carbs of the Biscuits!

You can make them in any baking pan. I've been making them in a cast-iron skillet in the oven. It works well.

[Ellendra]

Not a lot of people at this end of the metabolic bell curve. Welcome!

[Ellendra]

If that day ever comes, people are going to learn why potatoes were such a lifesaver when they made it to Europe.

[linMcHlp]

IIRC, Kellogg needs 3,000 acres for 1 year of cereal product.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Good to know. I found one for cheap at St. Vinnie’s, which is the only reason I own one. :)

[Myrddin]

Not a lot of people at this end of the metabolic bell curve. Welcome!

Hopefully being at the low end of the metabolic curve is an asset when the food shortages hit. If access to food requires a significantly greater calorie expenditure, the ability to run on low inputs may be compromised.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“I’ve been making them [popovers] in a cast-iron skillet in the oven.”

I maintain five different sourdough starters with different flours. Three are kept in the fridge and fed about once a month. Two are on the counter and fed typically once a day. They are very healthy.

So I get a lot of sourdough “starter discard” — typical 2 ounces per day per starter. It piles up quickly.

I made English Muffins in my cast iron skillet a couple weeks ago using the discard. They were wonderful. It’s interesting you don’t bake them, you fry them in cornmeal.

Cast iron skillets are wonderful. I’ve got a couple that were made over 100 years ago and still as flat as the day they were cast. I bought them at a Missouri farm absolute auction in 1972, so I’ve owned them for half their lives. When I got them, they were really cruddy with years of gunk. But they cleaned up perfectly and now I keep them well seasoned with leaf lard. Yes, “leaf” lard — a type of lard made from the soft, visceral fat of the pig. It’s perfect for seasoning cast iron.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Wow, that’s an amazing caloric intake. There have been some good articles by Conservative Mind on reduced caloric intake (with essential nutrients) on longevity, dementia, etc. Nothing but benefits. I’m impressed.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"The word "Lady" has its source in the Anglo-Saxon hlaf+dieg, 'loaf-kneader' or 'loaf-deliverer' An Anglo-Saxon wife of a warlord."

That's why I love FR! We start discussing the land area required to grow grain and, along the way, the etymology of "Lady" gets inserted into the discussion!

You just never know what you are going to serendipitously learn from our FRiends! Thanks for that aside.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“I’m glad you like the whole Azure thing.”

I’m very impressed so far. I love this “Drop” feature of theirs. It is brilliant! If you can be patient and wait a week or two for a local “drop,” you can reduce your shipping costs by 25% to 75%. I get my first “drop” this coming Sunday. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Azure sure has lots of great foodstuffs on their website. They were the only one that popped up with “Unifine” ground flour, too!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

BTW, there are lots of derivatives of that "No knead" approach in the NYT article you posted. One of my faves is the...

Beginner’s Sourdough Bread
A simple, approachable, and delicious loaf of sourdough bread
By Maurizio Leo

You just have to be around the house to do make the levain from sourdough starter, autolyse, mix, do the stretching and folding, do the proofing on the counter, dividing, preshaping, shaping, and popping in the fridge. All the work is in one day, then you bake the next day. But you need to be around for a good chunk of Day 1.

Quite a few people have tried to simplify the process so you aren't captive to the bread dough. Here's a good approach I have not tried yet.

Don't be a bread hostage
Finally, sourdough bread that fits your schedule
By Martin Philip
April 6, 2020

Maura Brickman holding a loaf of her bread

Bakers are friendly people. So friendly, in fact, that they ping my phone at all hours. Sometimes it’s a question (Hey! Where can I get those proofing baskets!?) or a picture of a great bake (Check this out!!! Jealous?) or a request for a recipe (Send me that Rye Pretzel pls). The conversation is open — you don’t need an intro — just let the random texts fly!

Recently, one of these exchanges changed the way that I make bread at home.

Maura: I’m not using preferments. I just use starter from the fridge ...
Me: No preferment??!
Maura: Nope
Me: How much bulk fermentation?
Maura: 12 hours ... it works ...
Me: ???? Send me a picture

Maura Brickman, a serious home baker in Connecticut, followed up her text with a picture of a large crusty loaf with gorgeous color. It was bakery quality by anyone’s standard — and she made it with "unrefreshed starter," straight from the refrigerator.

As a baker, convention has been my path to reliable results. I trust what I have done before — I know how to produce reliable results.

Maura doesn't care about convention. Free of “should” and “ought to,” she bends her breadmaking process to fit her busy schedule. She doesn’t take any guff from her starter or loaves — she's the boss of her bread.

I'm going to try this approach next. Being retired and kids grown, I have more time, but still I feel like a "bread hostage" at times.

[ShadowAce]

I’ve been wondering (for a while now) how much acreage would be needed to produce an equivalent amount of plant-based meat that one beef cow provides.

How much acreage does the cow require?

How much land does a cow need?

You've probably heard that you need about 1 acre per cow or about 1.5 to 2 acres to feed a cow/calf pair for 12 months. But the story really that simple. A typical 1 AU, 1,000 lb, cow might require as much as 8 acres (3.2 ha) on poor quality pasture with low precipitation or as little as about 0.27 acres (0.11 ha) on an irrigated pasture in excellent condition. As you can see the health and quality of the pasture and forage yield makes a huge difference in how many head of cattle can be supported per acre.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“IIRC, Kellogg needs 3,000 acres for 1 year of cereal product.”

3,000 acres — that’s roughly a square farm 2.2 miles per side.

[Nailbiter]

see #20

[Myrddin]

I weighed 193 in January 2016. Started tracking my weight and intake using MyFitnessPal. By 2018 I was maintaining 146 lb with 13.7% body fat. My wife developed type 1 diabetes in August 2019. Her eating is not as disciplined as mine. The consequence is my weight has crept up to 156 at the current time. About 16% body fat. There is still room for improvement, but the basic scheme is working.

[CFW]

“If that day ever comes, people are going to learn why potatoes were such a lifesaver when they made it to Europe.”

---

Now is a good time to be working on your “rock soup” skills.

If you don’t know the old story of rock soup, you missed an important lesson in your childhood as to how to “make do” when food is short. Some might have gotten socialism from the story but I know that I and my siblings learned a lot about cooperation, using what you had, and “making do” from that story. Of course, we were poor as church mice and anything in the pot on the stove was considered a blessing from God.

[Yardstick]

Very interesting — I might give that a shot.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Ahh, quite a loaf! Quite a Lady! :)

Now...from bread to beer! (Ale wives, but not the fish!)

"Humans have been drinking beer for almost 7,000 years, and the original brewers were women. From the Vikings to the Egyptians, women brewed beer both for religious ceremonies and to make a practical, calorie-rich beverage for the home.

In fact, the nun Hildegard von Bingen, who lived in modern-day Germany, famously wrote about hops in the 12th century and added the ingredient to her beer recipe.

From the Stone Age to the 1700s, ale – and, later, beer – was a household staple for most families in England and other parts of Europe. The drink was an inexpensive way to consume and preserve grains. For the working class, beer provided an important source of nutrients, full of carbohydrates and proteins. Because the beverage was such a common part of the average person’s diet, fermenting was, for many women, one of their normal household tasks."