Wheat Alternatives

I love wheat-based products, but growing wheat to make into consistently-available flour is not feasible for me given the time, effort, and space it would require. Are there any alternatives to wheat that I could grow instead?

A few notes:
- I am looking for something that can be used similar to wheat in making things like sourdough bread, pancakes, pizza dough, soft tortillas, desserts, etc. If a plant can be ground to flour but that flour, for whatever reason, does not work  well for making these things, it's not a good alternative.
- I need something that is easier, lower-maintenance, and more confined than wheat. If a plant can be used to make flour is high-maintenance, specialized, and/or takes up a ton of space, it isn't a good alternative. (Space can be relative, considering the yield of a plant; for example, an oak tree is much bigger than a single stalk of wheat, and yet if [hypothetically] an oak tree or two produce enough acorns to make the needed amount of flour, then their size isn't an issue).
- I live in USDA Zone 8a.

Wheat is relatively easy and productive, so I think the only grain plant I know that surpasses that easily, is corn. Acorns are good but need more effort, and I imagine chestnuts might be gobbled up before you could collect them. So you might be making cornbread, corn tortillas, etc. Sometimes people also use potato flour as well.

Certain foods like this may be a reason to look outside of your own garden. I for instance also love wheat but cannot grow it because of overwhelming predation. What I can grow are plenty of parsnips and potatoes, which serve as excellent staple foods too but aren’t seeds. However, one farm somewhat close, grew a wheat cover crop which went to seed. Since the seeds are a nuisance to them, I gathered up as much as I could take with me, hung it to finish drying, and threshed it. And I also can’t gather acorns in my garden (for another thirty years at least) but know of some excellent acorn gathering spots elsewhere. When we look beyond our gardens and forage or glean, it opens up more space for what will grow easily and well where we are.

The only crops that will give you a flour similar to wheat for purposes of things like yeast bread/pizza/sof tortillas are grains that are similar to wheat (spelt or rye, e.g.). Probably not appreciably easier to grow or process.

Maybe try some different recipes for wheat-free versions of your non-negotiable bread items, and see which formulas  are an acceptable product in your opinion, then see about growing those in your environment?

Kane,

It will be difficult. To make the foodstuffs you mentioned you need gluten in the flour and it limits the choices. All replacement will not taste like original. I love wheat products myself. I bake breads, pizza, pastry, I make pasta, pancakes, dumplings, pierogis, etc. If I replace it with rye flour, with the exception for bread, all these things become quite not palatable to me. And rye is still gluten rich, sticky flour.

I tried growing wheat and rye myself, but realized that for winter wheat the native plants take over in winter and suppress the grains. Summer wheat could be easier, but I would heave to use thousands of tons of water, so no. In early spring I see perfectly and densely (machine seeder) planted wheat fields with no weeds at all, probably with tons of pesticides. I'm going to give it a one more try. Instead of planting after the first heavy rain - like I did before,, I'm going to wait 2 weeks for natives to emerge and will harrow them. Will wait another 2 weeks and will harrow again and then will plant. I'm not crossing my fingers. I have the other crops that are quite successful.

I'm not sure about growability, but you might look at some things like buckwheat, amaranth, spelt, einkorn, or bran. All can make flours and most are used for various breads and breadlike products. Unfortunately I'm not sure if any of them would be any more compact than wheat to grow though.

Regarding acorns, don't give up on that yet. A Permie, Alicia Bayer has given us a few recipes in this thread. One is biscuits which look real good! Here is a link to a thread about her book, Acorn Foraging.

I don't have the book yet, but plan to. My book list is much much bigger than my budget!

Dehydrated marrows are really good as a flour substitute for flour in cakes and biscuits.

I have never tried using it for bread though.