Sep 5
Rain, rain go away!
Posted in Harvesting by David Wilson
With all this rain our milling grains, such as wheat and rye which are largely used for bread making, can be affected and in particular the quality of the starch, which forms most of the flour. The quality of the grain is checked using a Hagberg test which measures the potential quality of the dough. In a dry sunny harvest the Hagberg number is high which means the grain has the potential to produce a good elastic dough, but when it's wet like this it starts to think it's back in the ground as a seed again and results in inferior dough....and bread.
We take the grains from Home Farm down to nearby Shipton Mill who make our Duchy Originals bread. Their specialised testing kit measures the protein, moisture and weight of the grain but we'll have to wait until we've actually harvested the grain to see whether the rain has affected the quality this year.
