Would you use this red wheat?

[higgins]

After buying 5 bags of this wheat from a farmer, I got home and found this:

They are small, round, black seeds from an unknown weed, about 2-3 mm in size.

They are very hard. I cut one open and inside they are a tan/beige/greenish color. I tried to chew a piece but I'm afraid I'll break my teeth. I didn't get any kind of flavor from them.

Would you use the wheat as it is?

Edited to add: I've not been able to identify them. The locale is upstate SC, US

[seamusm53]

In a heartbeat, yes. Unless you think we are in the end times and you will be His way of separating the weeds from the wheat. 'Do you feel lucky, punk'. I really don't think these will either harm you or the product.

[IAmPistolPete]

Maybe try soaking them & see if they sprout or dissolve?

Not to be gross but is it possible it's some kind of mouse scat or something along those lines?

[higgins]

They are very hard. I cut one open and inside they are a tan/beige/greenish color. I tried to chew a piece but I'm afraid I'll break my teeth. I didn't get any kind of flavor from them.

I actually cut it into several pieces and chewed them, but it was like chewing coarse sand.

I'll try to sprout and grow some so I can identify them.

[greggn]

Would you use the wheat as it is?

Chances are your bags were the beginning or the end of a bagging run and you just got some stragglers from another product that came down the auger. I'd run that without a moments thought.

The red wheat I bought from a previous farmer was riddled with desiccated stink bugs. Those, I picked out from each batch before milling. Happily, I've since found a cleaner source.

[8Ball]

Would you use the wheat as it is?

Yea, I would. Depending on the grain bill size, I might pick put the other stuff, should be pretty easy if you malt it.

[HDNB]

if you happen to have a sieve that is smaller than the wheat and bigger than the black seeds........but in the end...seeds are seeds. mash 'em up and cook 'em.

[higgins]

I texted the farmer yesterday and he told me he thought they were some kind of weed seeds. He could not get his combine to 'blow them out' no matter what he tried. It is in a grain bin and he only bags it when he gets an order. This source is a couple of hours away, but I was heading thru there to another destination and arranged to pick it up on my way back. I haven't found a local wheat farmer yet.

They are really close in both size and weight to the wheat kernels. They look very much like black peppercorns, and are just as hard. I crushed a few with a hammer and tasted them, but there wasn't much flavor.

I do have some 1/8" hardware cloth that might work to sieve out the seeds, but if not I'll just use it as is. I use 10 lbs wheat in my wheated bourbon mash (3 mashes to do a batch), so this would last me a long time. But I'll probably use some to do a wheat whiskey, which I may split between a whiskey for aging and a neutral wheat vodka (and gin base). I may even try malting some portion of it - maybe do a 50/50 malted/unmalted mash.

[greggn]

I crushed a few with a hammer and tasted them, but there wasn't much flavor.

There you go. If they're benign, from a flavor perspective, then I wouldn't do more than grab the ones I see on top.

[shadylane]

Looks like morning glory seeds. Sprout some and find out.
If it is morning glories, it will contain trace amounts of lysergic acid amide.

Personally, I'd clean the wheat to remove the black seeds.

[higgins]

This is a picture of morning glory seeds.

These are very round, dark brown to black, and look much like peppercorns.

A am sprouting some for ID.

[shadylane]

I asked a friend that farms wheat, he said it's most likely "bind weed".
It's Kin to morning glories and takes proper crop rotation and expense to eradicate from a field.
Also, the buyers will dock you if there's very much of it in the wheat.

[higgins]

I sprouted some of the weed seeds - they are common vetch.

A very helpful forum member with a 3D printer made me a sieve screen with a grid of 3mm x 6mm. It seems to pass more than 95% of the wheat while passing less than 20% of the vetch seeds, so I'm quite happy with that.

The remaining <5% of the wheat with the weed seeds can go to my chickens.

Edited to add:

sieve.jpg (11.09 KiB) Viewed 859 times