For The Juniors: Where Does Bread Come From? - ABC Education

NARRATOR:

Do you eat sandwiches for lunch? You can put lots of yummy things inside a sandwich. And there are lots of different sorts of bread to go on the outside. You can use white bread, brown bread, multigrain bread... Have you ever tried Turkish bread? Or pita? Some people call it pocket bread because you can make a pocket in the middle and fill it with delicious things. Bread is good for us, too. It's full of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates give us lots of energy for playing and having fun.

GAGA THE GALAH:

I like playing and having fun too but I'd rather eat the plant they make bread out of. Do you know what it is? I'll give you a clue! It starts with...W. Uh-huh! It's wheat! Lots and lots of wheat! I'm going to go and eat some. See you later!

NARRATOR:

See you later, Gaga. Wheat is a type of grass which has grains that we can eat. Each grain could grow into a new wheat plant. But if you crush the grains down into a powder instead, we call it flour. And flour is used to make bread. It's also used to make pasta. Noodles. Cakes. Biscuits. Pies. Lots of things are made from wheat flour. So the farmer has to plant lots of wheat seeds. This machine drops the seeds into the soil with fertiliser to help them grow. The wheat plants also need lots of sunlight and just the right amount of water. Some places are too dry or too wet to grow wheat. It will only grow in places where the right amount of rain falls. As the wheat grows taller, it develops heads or ears where the wheat grains grow. And then the wheat changes colour from green to golden. Now it's ripe and ready for harvesting.

GAGA:

That means it's ready for eating! Uh-oh! Here comes that big machine! I'm off! (SCREECHES)

NARRATOR:

This machine is called a harvester. The farmer drives it around the paddock to collect the wheat grains. It's a bit like mowing the lawn. The harvester cuts the wheat heads off the stalks and shakes them to separate the grains. The grains are stored in the harvester while all the leftover bits are dropped back onto the paddock as straw. The stalks of the wheat plant left standing in the paddock are called stubble. The straw and the stubble make a good cover that protects the soil so the rain won't wash it away. Trucks take the wheat to a storage centre in the closest country town. The wheat is emptied into a pit. And then moved to a big storage bin called a silo. This train is taking the wheat from the silo to a special factory called a flour mill. And here, too, the wheat is unloaded into a pit. Oh, hello! Pigeons like wheat too just like Gaga the galah. Inside the mill, lots of special machines are at work. These milling machines break the wheat grains open and grind them down to flour. These machines look like they're dancing! They shake the powdered wheat down into flour but they're sorting the flour into different sizes or grains. The flour falls down through these socks. Look at the different grades of flour. And here's the fine flour ready to be packed into bags. Down the slippery dip to get stacked. And wrapped in lots and lots of plastic to protect them while they travel. When the forklift has finished loading, the truck will take the flour to shops, bakeries and restaurants.