Food From Grains (1962)

[Music] we bake a lot of bread in my bakery every day one afternoon my nephew Bobby came to see me in my bakery Bobby was surprised to see so much bread he wanted to know what Bread is made of I told him Bread is made of dough but the story of bread starts long before the dough is ever mixed bread is just one of many important foods made from grains the seeds of certain plants Bobby wanted to see more of my bakery before we went shopping but first he wanted to know more about grains and how foods are made from them I told him that foods are made from a number of grains and that one of the most important is wheat wheat is grown in the north central part of the United States and in Canada on very large Farms some wheat wheat ripens in June some ripens in August depending on when it is planted the wheat grains grow at the top of each plant they are the seeds of the plant some wheat Farmers also grow rye wheat and rye are two grains that Bread is made from the farmer feels and tastes the full grown grain this is one way he can tell if it is dry enough to harvest all grains are seeds these Rye grains are the seeds of the Rye plant since wheat Farms are so large the farmer uses many machines to help him grow and harvest the wheat this machine called a combine cuts the wheat and threshes it separating the grains from the rest of the plant Harvest time is a busy time of the year for wheat Farmers when the combine is full the grain is emptied into a truck these are wheat grains like all grains they have an outer covering called the husk which comes off the wheat has to be harvested quickly as soon as it is ripe before bad weather can ruin it many farmers bring their grain to a place called a grain elevator here the truck is unloaded and the grain is stored sometimes more grain is grown than we need and storing it is a problem corn is another important grain much corn is grown in the midwestern part of the United States growing on each corn stock is the part we call the ear which contains the grain corn is harvested in the Autumn While most of the Corn we see in fields like this is used to feed cattle some of it becomes food for us this machine called a corn picker takes the ears from the stalks the ears have an outer covering called the husk beneath the husk are the kernels or grains of corn rice is an important grain too in the United States rice is grown in several of the southern states and in California where the climate is warm combines are used to harvest the rice these fields were covered with water while the rice was growing the water was drained off before the Harvest while much rice is grown in the United States most of the world's rice is grown in other lands here is a boatload of rice in Southeast Asia here there are not many machines and most of the work is done by hand oats are another important grain they grow best in cool moist regions of the United States and other countries some of the oats go to factories to be made into breakfast cereals some wheat as well as corn is made into cereals too but most wheat and rye is sent to flour Mills to be made into flour for baking in the mill the wheat is first sifted to remove dirt and other material after sifting the wheat is washed and then the grains are passed through rollers which grind them into flour the flour is put into bags by machines flour that is made from the whole wheat grain is called whole wheat flour flour made from just the inside parts of the wheat grain is called white flour some of the flour goes to stores but much of it goes to bakeries bakeries just like mine now I told Bobby we'll see how my bakery mixes the flour into dough today machines do much of the work that was once done by hand to make dough flour is mixed with milk sugar salt yeast and some fat after the dough is prepared it is cut into smaller pieces and weighed so there is just enough for each bread pan this machine shapes the pieces of dough to fit into the bread pans for baking Bobby helped me push the pans full of dough into a special cabinet here the dough stays for about an hour and the yeast in it makes it puff up this is called Rising this dough has already risen in the bread pans it is ready to go into the oven and be baked some of our work is done by hand but in very large bakeries machines are used to bake wrap and handle the bread most of this bread is sent out the grocery stores to be sold I told Bobby that we sell our baked goods in our own shop we make many other Foods here besides bread we sell a lot of cookies and other sweet foods but these are not as important for health as plain rolls or bread there are different kinds of bread the most important are white and whole wheat and rye bread rye bread is made from Rye flour white bread from white flour whole wheat bread is made from whole wheat flour which is rich in vitamins now that I had shown Bobby some of the foods made from grains in my bakery I told him that we could find other foods made from grains while we went shopping at the supermarket at the supermarket we looked for more foods from grains we had already seen some of these Foods at the bakery so we looked for other Foods here Bobby found a box of rice most of the rice you buy has to be cooked before eating we found some canned corn too the kind of corn we eat is called sweet corn then Bobby found something he liked breakfast cereals Bobby pointed to cereals made from corn rice wheat and oats some cereals like oatmeal have to beook before eating Bobby found something else fresh sweet corn so Bobby had learned about many kinds of foods from grains I reminded Bobby that the story of the foods we saw at my bakery and in the store really begins with many different people working in many parts of our country and other countries they are all part of the story of foods from grains [Music]