If bulk grains are part of your long term food storage program, you will need a very essential piece of equipment. That piece of equipment is a grain mill. Don't get caught without one!
There are several main considerations when obtaining or purchasing a grain mill.
1.) Do I use a manual type, remembering that a hand crank is going to require some physical effort on your part or should you go with an electric model, realizing that during a power failure it may become useless for its intended purpose?
2.) Will you be using the grain mill to do both coarse and fine grinding? You will need the ability to do fine grinding for making flour to bake bread.
3.) Cost is another major consideration. Is the grain mill you want or need within your budget or will you need to start out with an economy model?
Here are some examples of different grain mills that are available:
Country Living Grain Mill
Family Grain Mill
Back to Basics Grain Mill
You can also get more information on grain mills here:
http://www.everythingkitchens.com/article-grain-mills-flour-grinders.html
Make sure to include a grain mill as part of your food storage equipment when storing bulk grains as part of a long term food storage plan.
Staying above the water line!
Riverwalker
Posts
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10 years ago
12 comments:
Just my humble opinion,but I feel that keeping whole wheat or such is a waste. Have you ever seen what it take's to make flour? You need to separate the chaff,husk, all that..way too much effort! If you read the earlier post on dehydrating, potato's can be ground up into a good substitue for flour.Potato bread anyone? It can be used for breading fried chicken,or whatever. Try corn flake breading! Corn meal!Here in the southwest,masa, a corn meal used in tortilla's and tamale's, is cheaper than dirt and can make anything,just add water!
To: anonymous
While grinding grain is not really something I would like to do, it may become a necessity. I too like cornbread and is my own choice for a favorite bread. Hard to beat a bowl of cornbread and beans. Masa is cheap around here also but some of the people in other parts of the country may not have a lot of access to it except in specialty food stores. Mrs. RW usually likes to make her own corn tortilla chips. Thanks.
RW
I never meant,or tried to imply,that Ms.RW had nothing better to do.I think we all will have better thing's to do when SHTF. I'd never let my significant other grind 400 pound's of wheat into 20 pound's of flour all day! And beside's that,do you,they,whoever, have the baking powder,egg's,sugar, baking soda,whatever needed to make a loaf of bread? Wheat,alone, by itself, is pretty useless. I stand by my prior comment's,unless you plant it,it's too much work! I've seen a few people on other post's claiming to have 400 pound's of this,that,and those.. Unless you own a semi and a forklift,how do you move it to your retreat area? And 50k round's of ammo? And a generator,and a few.. and those..and.. Don't get me wrong..I just think a lot of people here are,uhhmm,, full of S***!
Wrong info on grinding whole wheat flour by Anonymous! Nothing needs to be separated ... that's what WHOLE WHEAT flour is. It just makes a heavier bread that has more nutrients in it.
Better pricing for the Family Grain Mill can be found at http://www.internet-grocer.net/family.htm
To: anonymous
No offense taken. She just likes to make her own over store bought. Sorry, didn't mean for it to sound like that. You are right though in that it will take a lot of other ingredients to make all those grains useful...not to mention the work involved. I think everything has its limitations. Thanks.
RW
To; Bruce
Thanks for the link. Saving money is a good thing.
RW
BTW, I merely offered the link for purposes of examples only. There is no affiliation.
Anonymous 3:02,
For whole wheat,....just grind and lightly sift...
for stone ground old fashion white flour....first grind it to medium fine,......then just sift using a piece of window screen to remove the hulls. Regrind on a fine setting and sift out using a hand sifter.....(type you use when making cakes and such)
Takes no more time to make flour than it does for corn meal.
Also,..nobody in their right mind will sit and grind 400 lbs at a time,...c'mon dude?
Need to grind a lot?.....hook the grind wheel to a stationary bike,....pedal away my friend.
IMHO, don't cut wheat short.
It's after all, the staff of life.
Grinding isn't as bad as most think.
Takes roughly 20 min to grind enough for 2 loaves of bread. You still have to grind up the potatoes for flour, don't ya. Depending on how you dehydrate them (potato chip size), you will need to crush them down to fit in a grinder.
Also, when you buy wheat, all that is there is the berries. The chaff and husk are already removed by the combine in the field. Just grind and go.
Just my .02
To: gott_cha
Thanks for the info.
RW
To: westernmass.man
You make some very good points. Thanks for the additional input.
RW
Ok,good point's well taken by all!I stand corrected. I never meant to imply that wheat had no purpose,just too much for ME to mess with! I've never dealt with fresh whole wheat,so I have no clue what to do with it. As far as the dehydrated potato's,yes,you need to grind it for flour,but it can be used for soup,stew, or mixed with the white sauce/cheese recipe for au gratin tater's! Call me lazy,but I prefer to keep it a lot simpler! The smartest thing I EVER learned came from my grandfather.."If you put a lazy man on a hard job,he'll find an easy way to do it..and if it work's,who care's?"
I bought a cheap Estrella (Mexico manufactured) corn mill for $25 in local food store specializing in Mex products. Seems sturdy enough. Sure easier than using the traditional metate.
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