Posted: 3/15/2008 5:11:22 PM EDT
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So I finally pulled my new Country Living Grain Mill out of the box, finished its assembly, and poured in some newly purchased wheat. I need to buy some bolts/nuts to bolt the casting to my board base -- it's a pain to hold it still while grinding, but I was too impatient to wait til my next hardware store trip. I took a chance on buying the wheat from a feed/seed store, but it's very good looking stuff. I told them I wanted wheat for human consumption and they ordered some and it arrived there on a truck the next day. Was $19.95 for 50lb bag. Grinding seems to be going ok, but it's a s-l-o-w process. I know a lot of my fatigue is due to the unsecured base, but it takes a lot of rotations for that little mound of dust to form. I know I will also be buying one of their flour bins. The flour kinda flies everywhere and the CL bin would fit underneath better and catch all the hard-earned dust.       
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Well, the bread turned out great. I made a sweet "dessert" bread (it's just called Amish Friendship Bread). Wheat came from a local feed and seed store. I told them what I wanted to do and they ordered this from their supplier for me. I took off the power bar -- just too much wasted motion, and didn't need the extra leverage. I'm already considering buying the Kitchen Mill (electric) and saving the CLGM for loss of power situations. I want to incorporate whole wheat cooking into our diets more, but there's NO way I can spend hours each day cranking this thing just for a few cups of flour. I wish it were actually geared so one revolution of the flywheel means like 4 turns of the plates. I think GySgtD had the right idea when he bought an electric mill (reasoning that he had backup power anyway). Don't get me wrong, this thing is an instant heirloom and I'm glad I have a quality tool usable in loss of electricity, but I don't see how you could get enough flour for the effort to actually cook with it every day. |
Flywheel and a treadle. Stationary bicycle. |
It would only do them any good if they had been wise enough to store grains. If they were wise enough to store grains then, they would of included a grinder/mill. Folks will have both or none. If you have both and much extra grain, more than you, need then you have a trade item |
Well, I'm a kitchen noob, so I must say I'm not sure what wheat bran actually is. I know what part of the berry is the bran, but I'm guessing wheat bran probably means a part of the berry, meaning the berry is already cracked (not good). I bought whole wheat berries. They look like little seeds (because they are) -- see my pics. I specified I wanted wheat as clean as possible, for human consumption, and without dirt clods or rocks. They couldn't really tell me what to call it -- strange, I know. It's not really feed wheat (not treated with vet drugs) and not seed wheat (which I envision might be the dirtiest of the varieties) and certainly not "certified organic" which costs like $.70/lb at Whole Foods. As you can see by my pics, this wheat has a certified analysis and shows the percentage of "other" stuff in there. That said, the guys on YouTube make a point of mentioning they're packing "Feed Wheat" into their mylar and buckets. I assume it's not drugged in that case. So far, I've just grabbed berries by the handful, spread them in a shallow tupperware container, and picked out the 1 or 2 "rogue" seeds in there before dumping in the hopper. So far, no dirt or rocks at all. Pretty high quality stuff. I think I got lucky! Oh, and for some reason, my output has picked up today. I don't think I set it much coarser but for whatever reasons it's dumping flour in my bowl at a much faster rate. |
Don't rule out Co-Ops either. I had no idea they existed until recently. Basically a small business (probably non-profit) established by a few families in a neighborhood to pool money and buy stuff in bulk. They have access to bulk grains like this. There are 2 within 1 hour of me. |
I bought before the Feb 1 price hike, plus I called them directly and got a "blem" for $325 with free power bar -- which is a joke because this thing looks great. If you pull out the microscope you can find tiny imperfections in a few areas of the paint on the casting, but after a few turns of the wheel, you'll have a nice layer of flour to cover up any of that  .
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I have a Tractor Supply Co within 1/4 mile of me, so I'm looking there this week. I'll have to look for local Co-Ops. I know of some near my mom's house, but not around here. |
When you're the only one in the neighborhood that can bake bread you'd have one hell of a barter item. Why trade the wheat and grinder when you could just bake a few loaves of bread every day and pass them out or trade them to neighbors? |
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A shortbox pickup will hold about 35-40 bushels, and a 5 gallon bucket is about 1/2 bushel, so you're talking 70-80 buckets. Price is currently just shy of $10/bushel. Get a guy with a truck & tonneau cover, put a tarp down to prevent leakage out the tailgate and do a group buy during harvest time. |
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Quoted:
It would only do them any good if they had been wise enough to store grains. If they were wise enough to store grains then, they would of included a grinder/mill. Folks will have both or none. If you have both and much extra grain, more than you, need then you have a trade item Quoted:
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but I'm betting an extra one would appreciate 1500% in SHTF. Someone would give up a good set of rifles and a few thousand rounds for one. It would only do them any good if they had been wise enough to store grains. If they were wise enough to store grains then, they would of included a grinder/mill. Folks will have both or none. If you have both and much extra grain, more than you, need then you have a trade item Not necessarily. I know farmers with bins containing 1000 bushels-or more, of corn or wheat....NO grinder. |
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Forget the exercise bike, there's a reason it's called a windMILL. With the right gears and pulleys you should be able to hook up a modern windmill to turn the crank.
They aren't cheap but they make windmills that power water pumps, so with one of those you could have a way to pump a water supply and grind your grain without electricity. 
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Quoted: Not necessarily. I know farmers with bins containing 1000 bushels-or more, of corn or wheat....NO grinder. Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: but I'm betting an extra one would appreciate 1500% in SHTF. Someone would give up a good set of rifles and a few thousand rounds for one. It would only do them any good if they had been wise enough to store grains. If they were wise enough to store grains then, they would of included a grinder/mill. Folks will have both or none. If you have both and much extra grain, more than you, need then you have a trade item Not necessarily. I know farmers with bins containing 1000 bushels-or more, of corn or wheat....NO grinder. Holy thread resurrection!  Yep, farm people <> preppers, necessarily. I know a number of farm folks who are surrounded by grains and animals but eat lots of Dinty Moore and microwave meals. Monoculture and all that.
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I'm already considering buying the Kitchen Mill (electric) and saving the CLGM for loss of power situations. Why not take that extra money and put it towards motorizing your CLGM? The ease in motorizing this thing is one of the reasons I went with the CLGM (I bought a blem too... pic around here somewhere in SF. Like yours, barely noticeable). |
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this place has the grain you seek: |
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Thanks.
Those mills look stout. We have a Family Grain Mill and have used it for making fresh flour for two or four loaves of bread each week for six years now. It came with a hand crank and an electric motor. My wife used the hand crank once. If this isn't a novelty and will be used frequently, I highly recommend a motorized conversion. I have a 6 quart hand crank ice cream maker. For those who have used both hand crank ice cream makers and hand crank grain mills, I would appreciate a comparison. |
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I'm not sure what wheat bran actually is. I know what part of the berry is the bran, but I'm guessing wheat bran probably means a part of the berry, meaning the berry is already cracked (not good).
I bought whole wheat berries. They look like little seeds (because they are) -- see my pics. I specified I wanted wheat as clean as possible, for human consumption, and without dirt clods or rocks. They couldn't really tell me what to call it -- strange, I know. It's not really feed wheat (not treated with vet drugs) and not seed wheat (which I envision might be the dirtiest of the varieties) and certainly not "certified organic" which costs like $.70/lb at Whole Foods. As you can see by my pics, this wheat has a certified analysis and shows the percentage of "other" stuff in there. That said, the guys on YouTube make a point of mentioning they're packing "Feed Wheat" into their mylar and buckets. I assume it's not drugged in that case. Wheat bran is the outside brown part of the wheat. White flour is what is what you get when you remove the brown outside(the bran) of the grain and then grind the rest. The bran is highly nutritious and is why whole wheat flour is preferred by health "nuts". If you want wheat for consumption the term we use is "food grade wheat". At least that's what its called when we sell it. We have to keep it segregated from our other wheat and there are some restrictions on what fumigants we can use to keep the weevils out during farm storage. We do get a premium price for it but it also has to be higher quality. Seed wheat is not really a variety just wheat that has passed germination and purity tests so that when we plant it we know it will come up free of weeds. It will actually be cleaner than feed wheat but will not have some of the restrictions on storage as food grade wheat. Hope this helps, and yes I'm one of those farmers with thousands of bushels of grain, mostly rice, and no mill. Lee |