Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Grinding wheat
I keep reading about people who hand mill their flour and think that I want to try it. I am a little afraid of the investment of money and time involved, the grinder is very pricey! I think I would like to try it at first with a coffee grinder. I am afraid that I will get the stuff and not be able to keep up with the needs of my family. What if they don't want to eat regular bread anymore?! I really like the idea of it though... $65 is a huge part of my grocery budget, but it would last a long time. I think I want to try it, now to convince my husband that it is a good idea...
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I've been thinking about it, too. I stopped buying bread this year, as it's cheaper to make it myself. I'd be really nice if I could find a local farmer who grows the wheat, and buy it from him. I still have a lot of research to do to figure all that out!
ReplyDeleteI was considering that myself as we live in a rural area. I'm not sure what would be involved in the cleaning process though. I'm sure it would be way cheaper than buying it, although storage may be an issue. Do you know what kind of cleaning process they go through? Also, do they add anything to it to make flour? Still in the research phase of this, lol!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what you'd have to do either by way of cleaning. Storage is another issue. I've heard of people storing it in large Rubbermaid tubs, and grinding only a few cups at a time. I guess the grains last a lot longer than the ground flour. I think if you're doing it that way, you wouldn't have to add anything to it- if you wanted the ground flour to last, I guess you'd have to add some kind of preservatives. I haven't looked into too much. Melrose (wwww.heartofmyhusband.blogspot.com) would be able to tell you some more about it. I know she grinds her own stuff. But I think she buys it online.
ReplyDeleteWe can get clean wheat real cheap-like from a local mill. We have the Family Grain Mill (http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/#Family%20Grain%20) Mill. We can operate it either attached to my grandma's old Kitchenaid or manually (we really do this because we're survivalists; I don't believe in health).
ReplyDeleteThe thing about homemade bread is that it just doesn't last like the super-preservatived stuff from the store. When I make it, it's to eat today, because tomorrow the best I can hope for is retooling it as toast. I crouton out whatever is left over, but I absolutely do not "bake for the week." I also rarely make 100% whole wheat bread. It's like a brick.
What I haven't tried is making and freezing a huge batch with a dough enhancer, which is what my hard core milling friend does. As a jerk, I find it funny that using a dough enhancer means your home-milled, homemade bread contains most of the same additives as store bread.
I forgot--we store it in big mylar zipper bags inside 10 gallon buckets with clicky lids (can't remember what they're really called) in the basement.
ReplyDeleteI have am going to try and find a place where I can buy food grade wheat around here, I think the elevator in town only has feed grade wheat. I have been making this recipe:
ReplyDeletehttp://allrecipes.com/Recipe/simple-whole-wheat-bread/detail.aspx
This recipe makes three loaves which don't do too bad for a couple days. They are pretty dry by day three, but not so much that they are not paletable. After the first day, I have been melting a bit of butter on the bread so as to soften it if we are eating it without anything else. I tried baking a batch of three before we left on vacation last week. We ate one loaf, brought one along and froze one. The frozen loaf didn't taste too bad, we had it for lunch yesterday with no complaints from the kiddos.
Rebekah, does that mean you bake bread every day? Where did you get the buckets?
Leah, I saw a post from Melrose that she buys her wheat at www.pleasanthillgrain.com which is located in Hampton, NE not too far from a worship conference that my husband is probably attending at the end of the month. I am going to call up there and see if he can walk in and buy the grain cheaper than online to save the shipping costs.