We’ve been trying to cut back on our grain intake for various reasons. When we do eat flour products they are either soaked or sprouted. Soaking or sprouting grains before baking breaks down phytic acid, which robs the body of nutrients, it also helps to break down complex starches (something our bodies cannot do well alone), and it breaks down difficult-to-digest proteins. This includes foods like beans, which, when soaked will not cause upset stomach and flatulence.
Another bonus is that when baking with whole grains, this method softens the grain so that the final product is almost indistinguishable from one made with white flour. Also, pre-soaked baked products rise easily with baking soda alone and don’t require baking powder.
Next on my wishlist for the kitchen is a grain mill. Flour goes rancid very quickly. All flour found in the supermarket is rancid! There are some health food stores around here that have freshly ground flours that they keep in the freezer which works or they’ll grind my flour on request. But I think it’d be fun to have a grinder.
We’ve been buying sprouted bread and tortillas from Whole Foods, but they’re pricey and I’ve been wanting to try making my own sourdough using the traditional method. The only ingredients are flour, water and salt. Not only is this less expensive, but it’s the most healthful kind of bread you could eat. Plus it’s fun for Nora and I. Most kids don’t know how the wheat that grows on a field turns into bread. That’s a nice bonus.
First, you make a starter of freshly ground flour and water and cover it with a cheesecloth for 7 days,
feeding it flour and water daily. 
It ferments with good bacteria and yeasts from the flour and even from the air. Then on day 7 youadd salt and flour,
kneed,
let it rise,
and bake.
Tada! 
Despite the dark color (it looks like a whole wheat bread but it’s actually a combination of rye and spelt) I was surprised that it’s actually got a nice sour taste.
Nora approved as well. Here she is eating a “kid-friendly” traditionally prepared meal: homemade saurkraut, homemade fermented ketchup, locally made grass-fed beef hot dogs, and of course some homemade sourdough bread slathered in organic butter from pastured cows. (no, dispite what some of you would like to believe, that is not a look of disgust)
“In books on baking and even in nutritional/medical writings, the two techniques {for making bread}, natural leaven (sourdough) and baker’s yeast, are often mingled and confounded….baking with natural leaven is in harmony with nature and maintains the integrity and nutrition of the cereal grains used….The process helps to increase and reinforce our body’s absorption of the cereal nutrients. Unlike yeasted bread that diminishes, even destroys, much of the grains nutritional value, naturally leavened bread does not stale and, as it ages, maintains its original moisture much longer. Alot of that information was known pragmatically for centuries; and thus when yeast was first intorduced in France at the court of louis XIV in March 1668, because at that time the scientists already knew that the use of yeast would imperil the peoples health, it was strongly rejected. Today, yeast is used almost universally, without any testing; and the recent scientific evidence and clinical findings are confirming the ancient taboos with biochemical and bioelectronic valid proofs that wholly support that age old common sense decision. ” ~ Jaques DeLangre
