I was in a local one-of-a-kind store and my attention was caught by the bulk food bins, and the light bulb went on.

BULK GRAINS! BULK BEAN SEEDS! BULK HERB SEEDS!

So I bought small amounts (like a tablespoon or two) of about ten kinds that hadn't been processed (rolled, like oats, heated or hulled, etc). I sprinkled some on damp (not sopping) folded paper towels and put them inside plastic bags, with a plastic marker with the type written on it. All of the ones I tried sprouted (I didn't try all that I have found, nor did I try any of the rice yet, although brown, unprocessed rice should sprout. Wild rice, unless sold specifically for growing, has been heated, which would make it nonviable for sprouting.

A packet of seeds costs $3-4 per small pack; about a pound of grain in seed form costs $3-4 or so. And since it is for human consumption, you know that it hasn't been treated with chemicals, as some in farm stores have been. If you don't use them for sowing, you could still use them for sprouting (for salads, stir-fry and sandwiches).

There are two regular grocery stores not far from me that sell bulk grains (etc), plus a couple of health food stores. One of the grocery stores also sells a very good supply of packaged Bob's Red Mill products, which carries quite a stupendous number of grain-type products, whole and processed. They also have a website: http://www.bobsredmill.com/

Here is a list of some of the things I have found:

BEANS (avoid beans or peas that have been split)
Adzuki
Anasazi
Black
Black-eyed beans
Black Turtle
Cannellini
Cranberry Beans
Fava
Flageolet
Garbanzo (chick peas)
Great Northern
Large Limas and Green Baby Limas
Mung
Navy
Pink
Pinto
Red Kidney
Small Red
Soy Beans

GRAINS
Amaranth grain
Barley, pearl
Barley, hull-less (easy for home gardeners)
Buckwheat if you can find it whole
Lentils
Lentils, petite French green
Lentils, red
Millet (don't get hulled)
Oats are rarely found whole, and are very difficult to hull, but a couple of hull-less varieties are out there as packet seed
Pigeon peas
Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah)
Rye
Spelt (an ancient grain)
Teff (the smallest grain)
Triticale (cross between wheat and rye)
Wheat, hard red winter variety
Wheat, hard red spring variety
Wheat, hard white variety
Wheat, soft white variety
wheat, Kamut (pronounced ka-MOOT)

SEEDS
Breadseed poppy
Caraway
Chia
Flax, brown and golden
Popcorn
Sesame
Sunflower (be sure to choose raw in shell)

Also check your local bulk source for HERB seeds. Not all of them will grow in your climate, but it would be cheap enough to try any that interest you.

Sue

Yes, but...

You could probably collect the seed from a small number of plants and plant them next year and get a decent crop.

But for the long-term 'health', viability and genetic diversity, you need to plant a decent number of plants to collect from.

When plants are Open-Pollinated (OP), each plant is slightly different from the others. A bee or fly or moth will 'work' a lot of plants, picking up a bit of pollen from the plant he lands on, and depositing some of that pollen to other plants. With every tiny bit of pollen he drops, the genetic makeup of the offspring of that particular plant changes. Those tiny, tiny differences is the genetic diversity that keeps the plants strong. Fresh blood, so to speak.

If you only plant a few plants and keep collecting the seed, without outside pollination, the quality of your plants will start to diminish.

That said, some of the most valuable seed maintenance has been made by individuals. You don't have to be a large commercial grower to produce good seed.

I don't know much about triticale, so I looked up the genetic makeup, and even though it is a hybrid (they don't usually breed true), apparently triticale is relatively stable and does breed true:

"Even though triticale is a cross between wheat and rye, it is self-pollinating (similar to wheat) and not cross pollinating (like rye). Most triticales that are agronomically desirable and breed true have resulted from several cycles of improvement, but are primarily from the durum-rye crosses with some common wheat parentage occasionally involved." [Source: see link below]

So, I would grow the largest stand that is feasible for you, at least a patch 10x10' or more, collect the grain and mix it well, then collect seed from that mix.

Sue