The Best Grains to Grow at Home for Delicious Bread

There’s nothing quite like kneading dough. It’s oddly reminiscent of playing with Play-Doh as a kid! It’s satisfying to feel the wet flour on your hands, and to hear the plopping noises the dough makes when you knead it. 

If you’re like me, you’re making bread often to feed your family. Perhaps you have a go-to loaf, or you like experimenting with new grains and mix-ins. No matter your situation, it’s a great idea to grow grains for bread in the garden. 

Grains are the seed heads that sprout from grasses. Grasses, unlike other garden plants, are easy to grow! They need less water than most crops, and they’re sun-loving and drought-resistant (except for rice). 

Pick your favorite grain to grow for bread, or try a new one to experiment a bit. Wheat is a great first type to try cultivating, while corn, oat, and rye grains have many other uses outside of bread making. They’re great multipurpose crops for the kitchen.

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Wheat

Wheat grains are a great place to start if you want to grow grains for bread. White flour is made from wheat, and you have the option of making white or whole wheat flour when you grow wheat at home. Additionally, other wheat preparations come from the grass species. 

Spelt, wheat berries, and einkorn are all variations of wheat that offer unique qualities in homemade bread. Whole wheat is a bit more challenging to handle in bread dough than white flour. It has more flavor and nutritional value, but it forms fewer gluten strands and tends to be denser. 

In the garden, wheat is an annual crop that grows for three seasons. Some species grow during the cool season, while others start in spring for a fall harvest. Give wheat well-drained soil with plenty of compost, and water it regularly during the growing season. 

Rye

Rye is another whole grain that makes delicious loaves. It forms some favorite breads like pumpernickel and dark rye bread. It grows similarly to wheat as a summer or winter annual. To get enough rye grains to make flour, you’ll need to sow a large crop. 

Pick an open spot in the yard, or choose a big raised bed. Sow seeds in well-drained soil rich with organic matter. Cover them with a thin layer of compost, then water well. The grasses need less moisture when they turn brown and their seeds begin drying. 

Harvest grains like rye with a scythe, like traditional farmers would do, or pick them off by hand and place them in a container. Set them in the sun to dry for a week. You’ll need to winnow the rye berries to isolate them from the dry stalks and chaff. 

To winnow, place a fan nearby to blow air sideways, and dump the harvested rye into a container below. The air will blow the light stalks away, while the heavy rye grains will fall into the container. Repeat the process as you need to further remove the chaff.

Oat

Oats are more than grains to grow for bread. They’re also the source of oatmeal, porridge, and granola! This whole grain is ideal for breakfast foods and hearty loaves. It grows well in hot or cold weather, and it needs little to no maintenance to thrive in the garden.

Harvest oats following the process mentioned above for rye grains. You may store the whole grain as it is, or mill it into flour for easy use in the home kitchen. 

To process oats into flour, grind them with a spice or coffee grinder, or use a blender or food processor. Gather the dry flour into a container with a lid, and store it in a cool, dark, and dry spot. The pantry works well, as do cupboards and cellars.

Barley

Barley is perfect for cool home gardens! Grow this grain for bread during the chilly seasons. Despite its cold-loving tendencies, it needs well-drained soil and dislikes soggy areas. It’s fourth in popularity among all grains behind corn, rice, and wheat. 

Most home cooks use barley as a brewing ingredient for malted and alcoholic beverages. As it is a grain, it can be used as a flour in baked goods. 

Barley tends to have a rich, fatty flavor that blends well with other flours in homemade breads. Incorporate a small amount in your regular loaf to see how it responds. If you like the flavor and texture, add more the next time you bake bread. 

Buckwheat

Buckwheat has wheat in its name, but it’s not even a true grass! This summer annual grows seeds that resemble grains. They’re delicious and nutritious but gluten-free. Plants like buckwheat are pseudograins, as they aren’t true grasses, and they form seeds that we use like grains. 

Buckwheat prefers a warm, dry climate to thrive. Grow it from spring through fall, and harvest its seeds once the clusters begin to dry. The seeds sprout from white flowers that are incredibly decorative in ornamental gardens and veggie plots. 

Because buckwheat lacks gluten, it won’t make a bread loaf on its own. It’s best to use it as a blend with other flours, like wheat and rye. It’ll fare well in bread recipes that use baking soda and powder instead of commercial yeast or sourdough starter.

Corn

Can corn make bread? Yes, it can! Think of delicious recipes like cornbread and fried corn cakes. You may also put a little cornmeal in your sourdough loaf for flavor and whole-grain nutrition. 

Corn grows best during the summer when sunlight and warmth are abundant. You’ll need a large plot that’s bigger than five square feet at a minimum. A big plot helps with pollination rates, as corn plants rely on wind for pollination. 

Harvest corn ears when the silks dry on the exterior, and the kernels on the inside squirt out milky white juice. Peel back the husk of an ear to check the corn, using your fingertip to press down on a single kernel. 

Brown Rice

Brown rice is another grain to grow for bread! Simply grind up the rice to use it as a flour, or find processed brown rice flour at the store. Rice needs plenty of moisture and sunlight to grow well, and it’s a bit more high-maintenance than other whole grains.

How much water your rice needs depends on the type. Lowland varieties require regular flooding, while highland types need occasional watering during the growing season. Consider growing lowland types in buckets so you can flood them without soaking your home garden.

Rice grains need more time to dry out than the others on this list. Harvest them whole with their stalks, then hang the stalks to dry for two weeks. Collect the rice seeds after two weeks by winnowing the stalks and chaff from the grains.

Millet

Millet handles droughts and dry weather better than most other cereal grains. The seeds are small and round, and they’re different colors depending on the type. Some varieties are brown-red, others are yellow, and a few are white. 

Millet cooks well like rice as a grain, and it’s also a good addition to delicious bread. Grind the seeds when they’re dry, and store the flour in a container in your home. 

Quinoa

Quinoa is growing in popularity, and for good reason. It’s one of the only seeds that is a complete protein. Most seeds, like black beans and rice, combine to make a complete protein. Quinoa is complete on its own in home-cooked meals. 

Quinoa is a pseudograin, not a true grain. It sprouts from an annual plant that grows best during spring and summer. Harvest it at the end of summer when the seeds begin to fall off the stalks. 

Use your homegrown quinoa as a grain in boiled and steamed preparations, or grind up the dry seeds to make quinoa flour. It lends a nutty, robust flavor to sourdough and yeast bread. 

Amaranth

Amaranth stands out in the ornamental garden, but did you know you can eat its seeds like grains? They’re easy to harvest, easy to grow, and delicious to eat! Plant edible amaranth in the veggie garden, or situate random plants around your flower and shrub plots. 

Amaranth sprouts edible leaves that work well as a substitute for spinach in cooked meals. It’s perfect for the garden, as its multi-purpose nature makes it doubly useful in the home. The type of amaranth to choose depends on your preferences. Opt for leafy types if you want to harvest the foliage, and choose varieties that grow lots of seeds for flour production. 

Amaranth is gluten-free. Mix it as a small component in wheat bread, or use it for pancakes and other goods that don’t need yeast or starter to rise. 

Teff

Last on the list of grains to grow for bread is teff. Teff grains are smaller than quinoa, and they have a mild, fatty, and nutty flavor that blends well in homemade bread. Keep the grains whole for rice-like dishes, or blend them up into flour for baked goods.