Re: background info on sorghum

[Guest guest]

From what I have gathered in my brief web surfing, food grade sorghum is

just starting to be developed as a commercial product. There is something

labeled " certified food sorghum " to distinguish it from the majority of

sorghum grown for animal feed. Here's a blurb I found on the national grain

sorghum producers web site (although it appears that there figuring out all

kinds of ways to make it real unhealthy by popping, puffing and extruding

<groan> I also have a email out to Twin Valley Mills to see if the sorghum

grain they sell is organic (I have my doubts), although by the definition of

food grade sorghum it's non-GMO.

--

Here's the blurb......from this link

http://www.sorghumgrowers.com/consumer.htm

ABOUT FOOD SORGHUM

With the rise in importance of the " Food Sorghum " varieties, it has become

apparent that we need a better understanding of their markets and a clear

definition of " Food Sorghum " .

By definition, " Food Sorghums " are varieties of grain sorghum that contain a

white berry, with a tan glume and are grown on a tan plant (White/Tan/Tan

sorghums). Yellow and red sorghums do not qualify as " Food Sorghums " as

well as some varieties of cream color grain sorghums.

White/Tan/Tan sorghums have a bland taste that is synergistic with other

flavors, limited wilting characteristics, in cereal and produces a white

meal or white flour. Portions of the food quality sorghums are currently

being used in snack food applications in the U.S. and Japan.

The whole or decorticated kernels of the White/Tan/Tan sorghums can be

extruded, flaked, popped, puffed and micronized to produce ingredients in

snacks, granola cereals, granola bars, baked products, dry snack cakes and

other products.

White/Tan/Tan sorghums can be used as a substitute for wheat flour in a

variety of baked products including cookies, breads and other related

products. Sorghum flour is being used as a wheat flour substitute by

replacing up to 50% of the wheat, without affecting texture and flavor, in

several commercial bakeries.

Because grain sorghum does not contain the same gluten as wheat it can

replace wheat, as baking flour for people that need a " Wheat Gluten-free "

diet. Applications for gluten-free diets are Celiac-Sprue Disease, and

autism. Currently, research into many different health applications for

grain sorghum is under way.

White/Tan/Tan sorghums are high in insoluble fiber with relatively small

amounts of soluble fiber. The protein and starch components of grain

sorghum are more slowly digested than other cereals and slow the rate of

digestion for products made from White/Tan/Tan sorghums. Slower rates of

digestibility are particularly beneficial for diabetics.

Many populations in Africa and India have consumed sorghum for thousands of

years. Their cultures actually developed the original White/Tan/Tan

sorghums for making porridges and flat pancakes. The darker sorghums are

not used in this ancient market.

There are many other health characteristics currently being researched and

we are therefore on the verge of re-discovering their true benefits.

The National Grain Sorghum Producers " Certified Food Sorghum " program

identifies the varieties approved for food in the United States. Each

variety is grown, tested and certified through this program

[Guest guest]

At 10:33 PM 7/30/2002 -0400, you wrote:

>My questions:

>1. Have Americans or native Americans ever eaten sorghum traditionally?

>If so, why did we stop?

>2. Is the " sorghum for people " now grown here? Is that what Red Mills

>sells? Or the website that Heidi has mentioned?

>

>

Nice writup! I'd love to read that book.

Why don't we eat it? THATS a huge question!

Some people would say it's because we like our bread to rise high and

our noodles to be thick. Others would say there are opiates in wheat

that we are addicted to.

I don't know myself: but there are loads of grains in the world, but

we seem to be stuck on wheat only in the West. Other parts of the

world eat other grains or roots and do fine, and have really tasty

cuisines to boot.

Actually, not long ago, soy beans were in the same boat. We fed

them to animals, but not people. Then soy beans became " in " and

now people eat them a lot. Maybe Sorghum is the " soy " of the future?

Anyway, I think it's more healthy than soy!

You can get sorghum flour cheaply in Indian grocery stores. ($7 for

25 lbs, someone told me). I don't know if that is red or white sorghum,

but I'd guess white. twinvalleymills sells white sorghum: I bought some

whole and it looks just like the sorghum they sell in rodent food.

I believe it was eaten more in the past -- it's easy to grow. The farmer

at twinvalleymills grows wheat too -- apparently sorghum is a good

" companion crop " for the wheat (they grow during different seasons,

so he says the potential for contamination is slim, and I have not

had any problems).

Heidi

[Guest guest]

--- Maybe the answer is in availability. Winter wheat allows the

farmer to grow a crop out here in the desert in the winter. Winter

wheat grows essentially while the bugs and weeds(or some anyway) are

not. Also wheat can be planted in a pile of dust and whenever it gets

rain it germinates in about 24 hours outgrowing the weeds(that weren't

already growing). BTW wheat's about the only thing I've harvested

this year and it (organic non-hybrid) probably yielded only 20% of the

Kansas average. Grasshoppers ate the onion tops, drought brought the

blackberry harvest to an abrupt halt and eliminated my sweet corn and

peanuts. Bugs and drought killed the soup beans(an atypical Kansas

crop but I thought maybe an alternative to soybeans). the

watermelons and cantalope are being destroyed by striped and spotted

cucumber beetles, mexican bean beetles and mealy bugs among others.

Grasshoppers destroyed the rhubarb and frost and /or freeze greatly

reduced the asparagus yield. Plus I didn't get the chicken house

cleaned out last fall to fertilize it. My fault. Anyway wheat and

blackberries and milk (the cow grazes on wheat pasture about 4 months

yearly) are about all we've produced and we've been at this avocation

6 years. We did manage to take about 30 acres of hybrid NPK wheat out

of production cause we did move into a wheat field and plant

fruits/vegetables and the house and barnyard where the wheatfield once

was. Wheat survives this harsh climateeven better than sorghum. It was

perhaps better? as grassland. BTW I'm planting grass this fall for the

cow and very little wheat. What will we eat next year? Dennis

In @y..., L123 M123 <lm324@j...> wrote:

> The recent sorghum questions made me wonder what native peoples

eat/ate

> sorghum, so I turned to the book " The Splendid Grain " by

Wood.

>

> My questions:

> 1. Have Americans or native Americans ever eaten sorghum

traditionally?

> If so, why did we stop?

> 2. Is the " sorghum for people " now grown here? Is that what Red

Mills

> sells? Or the website that Heidi has mentioned?

>

>

>

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