The Start of a Homesteader Mom

Anyone have a grain mill they can share insight on with a clueless newbie homesteader?

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03:41, April 24, 2007 .. Posted by gokings13

Yes I own a grain mill.
It is a NutriMill
You can buy them at breadbeckers.com or urbanhomemaker.com. There are many other places to buy mills. Do a goggle search and it will give you many choices!
Breadbeckers website will send you a free cd that gives TONS of information about milling grains, and the benefits.
You can buy grain from a buying club, from Wild Oats, or from a local health food store. Look in your yellow pages under Health food.
If you keep your grain in a container that critters can't get to, it will keep for ever. Trust me, once you start baking, you will go through it!!
For a 50lb bag of grain, it was 33.00. You can start by baking bread from scratch. That's a good place. Pancakes muffins things like that too.
JUST KNOW it will NOT taste ANYTHING like the bread you eat at the store. Fresh milled bread is earthy. It's good! but it does have a different flavor.
Once you mill it, put it in the freezer. You should mill only what you need to start with. If you leave it out it will rot.
You can make everything with fresh milled wheat.
Breadbeckers has great cookbooks using fresh milled wheats (of all different kinds) and beans!! It is amazing what you can make.........and it's so good for you!!

What the Bible Says About Healthy Living by Rex Russell is a great book on nutrition according to the Word.
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon has great information. I am not to keen on her recipes (she soaks her food *ew*) but the information in the first 30 pages is amazing.

Hopefully the other ladies will chime in with other information!!

Laura

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03:48, April 24, 2007 .. Posted by CatherineAnn

I have a K-tec kitchen mill and I love it! It is super simple to use- nothing to it :) . I buy my grain from Whole Foods market. A 25lb. bag of organic white wheat was cheap, I don't remember the cost- I bought it at least 6 months ago, and it has been fine in my pantry. After I mill my flour, I store any that I don't use right away in the freezer.
HTH,
Catherine

Grain mill

04:43, April 24, 2007 .. Posted by mulberrylane

I have a Kitchen Aid attachment that mills my grain. It works for now. Dh got it for me as he saw me interested. And as far as texture goes, I can mill it as fine as I like it. BUT, it does get hot. This mill has metal plates that the grain falls between and it gets hot. So, I only grind a bit at a time so that my wheat does not get "hot". The high temperatures will kill all the good stuff you are trying to get from milling your own grains... So it is a downer. I told dh I would grind up the last of my grain, but after that I'm buying a self contained mill.

There are benefits to the self-contained... I don't have to unattach the grain mill to use the mixer and it that is a plus as the attachment is heavy and bulky and just a fuss to use.

I am looking at getting a mill that will do at least 10 cups of flour at a time without getting HOT. I am still searching out my options.

As for grain... it depends on what you are looking at. Yes it is more expensive, but if it takes less bread to give more nutrition, we really shouldn't have to eat so much... and it's true. A good wheat bread should give you all the nutrients in one piece of bread that white bread would give you in maybe 3 or 4 slices or more.... squish the bread... white has nothing in it and wheat will keep it's own pretty well.

There are different berries.... Hard white berries are what we use for our wheat bread. It gives the bread a softer lighter texture and the taste isn't so dark. The hard red berries give the darker wheat flavor and a heavier bread as well. (I like them both, but the kids and dh like the white berries). I have soft wheat berries that I've tried using for cookies and such, but I haven't had much luck with my experimenting at the moment. The soft wheat berries grind up to make a pastry type flour that isn't good for bread, there isn't enough gluten in it, but supposedly fine for cookies, quickbreads, etc. My luck has given me flat flat cookies... so I am still experimenting.

The price for the berries will differ with whether you go organic or not. I like ordering from Country Life (search online to see if they have an order spot near you). The prices are good. We also have a local coop that orders in bulk and I am waiting to place an order next week.... Country life's truck only comes every other month to our area. Our coop orders every two weeks. Also prices are lower if you order more. I found the bulk bin grain at the grocery store is way higher than the coop or Country Life, so I would suggest looking around.

I order 50 pound bags. I freeze them in freezer bags about 5 pounds in a bag. I put the current bag being used in a tupperware container.

For freshest flour with the most nutrients I had heard that you should use within 72 hours... but if used within 12-24 hours, you are getting top nutrition. That's why I want a self supporting mill... that way I can grind and mix the same day... my kitchen aid gets so hot, I feel I should wait until it cools off and then it is late in the day for baking.

Well, I am not the expert on this at all. I just am starting out. I actually started 3 years ago, but didn't go very far, got pregnant and had a baby and just other things on my mind. I am looking into a nutrimill at the moment. Dh just sighs... we are trying to pay bills off, but we are also all trying to eat healthier as well. Seeing your parents getting old... you see what that lifestyle can bring... so we are changing late in the game, but hopefully it will become a way of life for the kids, you know?

My kids were fans of Roman Meal bread or ummm... the yellow bag wheat, but feels like white bread, LOL. Anyways, they ate the heavier bread after trying a friend's bread at farmer's market... she grinds her grains twice to make them extra fine and then bakes really nummy organic bread. The girls LOVED her bread. (Hunger strikes at the market, you know). Anyways, back at home, they tolerated My wheat bread, but when I switched to white winter berries... they said... mom, this is the best bread ever! LOL... Dh is still yet to try it. *grin*

Warmly, ~Melissa

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05:35, April 24, 2007 .. Posted by chenny3

I also have a k-tec, I have had it for about 5 years???? It still works great although I did break the clips on the side. Anyway we buy bags of wheat from the co-op, united natural foods is there name and you can go to the website and see if any co-ops already exisit in your area. We buy white wheat. We like the texture of the baked good better than with red wheat. I think our bag of wheat cost about $22. Then we store it in 5 gallon buckets with a good seal on them, you can get these from bakeries or you can buy them online. We just leave it out. I make bread, muffins, cakes, gravy, biscuits anything you would use white flour to make I use the wheat. We have made noodles and really like homemade wheat noodles..not so much store bought wheat ones though. I don't think the white wheat takes much of a getting used to period. Like I said I bake everything form scratch with our wheat and we love it. Hope this helps. Feel free to email me any questions. I have a great bread recipe. Blessings, Jennifer

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06:00, April 24, 2007 .. Posted by morningsunshine

whole wheat berries will keep FOREVER...... I like the soft white for muffins, pancakes, etc. and it works fine. I cannot get german pancakes or biscuits to do well with it though :(
I use hard white for bread, pizza crust, anything that has yeast.

as for a mill..... I was using my vitamix dry canister, but it made my flour really uneven - I had to sift it a number of times, and the time and effort was not worth the bother! I borrowed my mothers - an OLD grinder that works great, kind of similar to a http://waltonfeed.com/gold.html but I found with it sitting on my counter all the time, I never wanted to clean my countertops - just push things around. so I am giving hers back (it was just on loan anyway - a long story) and bought a wondermill; I have only used it twice, but I like how it fits under my cupboards and it mills quickly.
as for heat - my understanding is that most will heat up your flour to some degree or another. at waltonfeed.com, in his comparison of mills, he points out that if you only mill what you are using right away, your flour is going to get HOT anyway.
just my thoughts

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09:24, April 25, 2007 .. Posted by gokings13

http://www.homesteadblogger.com/HandsNHearts/39922/Homestead+Post+%231+--+Flours+and+Grains.html/

This is a very informative post!!
laura