When Ben and I got married, we registered for and received some truly lovely gifts. Bath towels, plastic storage drawers, hot plate and slow cooker-- these have all been used and appreciated very much in the years since our wedding. There are a few gifts, however, whose function have become absolutely indispensable to the way our family functions. One was my marble rolling pin, whose weight makes it much easier to roll out dough for cookies, cinnamon rolls and homemade pasta; the other is the Lehman's Own Hand Cranked Grain Mill. With it we turn wheat (which we buy inexpensively at the feed mill, less than $15 for a fifty pound bag) into delicious whole wheat flour, and also turn our home grown Mandan Bride flour corn into incredibly tasty corn meal.
With these great ingredients we can make all manner of wholesome, delicious food. The wheat flour gets soaked overnight (often with a splash of whey to help it along) and added to my doughs for various breads, like sourdough loaves, potato sandwich bread, cinnamon rolls, and doughnuts, or to the batter for pancakes or banana bread. (I'm also in love with this 100% whole wheat chocolate chip cookie recipe, and if you chill the dough for 24 hours you can totally pretend that counts as soaking...) The cornmeal, after an overnight ferment (I make sure to add raw milk at the very least--corn needs lots of help with its phytic acid content), gets used for delicious cornbread or pancakes more often than anything else, though in our poorest winter, when we went more than one month without a paycheck, I made hoecakes (basically a 1:1 ratio of cornmeal and water, fried like a pancake) and cornmeal mush (the process is much like my soaked oatmeal recipe but with cornmeal) more than a few times to fill tummies without having to resort to expensive storebought flour or rolled oats. It would also work well for polenta, and I'll occasionally mix a handful into the masa for homemade tortillas to give them a more characteristic flavor and texture.
In conclusion, I feel that all these benefits demand action on your part. Dig through your old wedding presents, find that grain mill, and get crankin'!
...
The numbers work out almost as well for cornmeal: at about $.45 a pound in store minimum, and $.20/lb tops at the mill, means that doing your own milling with result in a significant savings.
But will the mill pay for itself if you aren't lucky enough to get one as a wedding present? There are multiple factors to consider. First, there are cheaper grain mill options available. The Victoria Commercial Grade Manual Grain Grinder with Hopper is available on Amazon.com for under $50, significantly shortening the time it would take for the mill to pay for itself. There are cheaper grinders still, but the Victoria has the best reviews I've seen for a mill in this price range--with the others you're taking a chance on ending up with an unusable product. Other options include purchasing a mill cooperatively with friends (preferably ones who live close by to make sharing easier) or finding a used one on craigslist or eBay.
The economy of grinding wheat is a little trickier from a strictly cost standpoint: unless you get a stupendous price for wheat at the feed mill, the white flour from the store will probably be cheaper. On the other hand, white flour is white flour: devoid of all but calories, it's fairly limited in both interest and nutrition. Adding soaked whole wheat flour to your yeast breads will give them a boost of fiber and nutrients, in addition to a more complex flavor and texture; it will do the same for quick breads, biscuits and pancakes. I'll even add a little to my pasta dough if I happen to have any on hand. Raw, unaltered whole wheat flour like what you grind yourself is also rich in the enzyme phytase, meaning that adding a tablespoon of it to your other grains or legumes while they soak will help break down their phytic acid faster and more completely. And did I mention my favorite whole wheat chocolate chip cookie recipe? Hm, I guess I did. I'll add this: it reminds me of a granola bar in the very best way.
There are other grains out there, too, and their economy favors home grinding significantly. Barley and rye are available at feed mills for less than the price of wheat and yet cost much more at the grocery store. So for truly impressive waste-not cred, experiment with using alternative grains in all your baking and pancake capacities.
A Vitamix or similarly expensive blender can grind grain admirably, saving a ton of time; if you already have one all you have to do is hit the feed mill for corn and/or wheat and you're off to the races. And, true to form, you can get a grain grinding attachment for your KitchenAid, so if you're among the Lucky Few it would definitely be an economical option. In either case grinding grain will be a much less arduous process (though still noisy).
In conclusion, if you are concerned about the quality of the food that you can afford for your family, or if you wish to keep trimming the fat from your grocery budget, I encourage you to consider grinding your own whole grains. The results are delicious, nutritious, more filling than refined flours, and fresher (and easier to digest!) than store bought whole grains. And, if you continue down the Waste-Not trail and start growing your own grains, you'll already have established habits of grain grinding that will allow you to seamlessly enter your new, more self-sufficient lifestyle. For our family it's been more than worth while.
With these great ingredients we can make all manner of wholesome, delicious food. The wheat flour gets soaked overnight (often with a splash of whey to help it along) and added to my doughs for various breads, like sourdough loaves, potato sandwich bread, cinnamon rolls, and doughnuts, or to the batter for pancakes or banana bread. (I'm also in love with this 100% whole wheat chocolate chip cookie recipe, and if you chill the dough for 24 hours you can totally pretend that counts as soaking...) The cornmeal, after an overnight ferment (I make sure to add raw milk at the very least--corn needs lots of help with its phytic acid content), gets used for delicious cornbread or pancakes more often than anything else, though in our poorest winter, when we went more than one month without a paycheck, I made hoecakes (basically a 1:1 ratio of cornmeal and water, fried like a pancake) and cornmeal mush (the process is much like my soaked oatmeal recipe but with cornmeal) more than a few times to fill tummies without having to resort to expensive storebought flour or rolled oats. It would also work well for polenta, and I'll occasionally mix a handful into the masa for homemade tortillas to give them a more characteristic flavor and texture.
In conclusion, I feel that all these benefits demand action on your part. Dig through your old wedding presents, find that grain mill, and get crankin'!
...
You Don't Have a Grain Mill, Do You.
You know, that really doesn't surprise me. The number of those who have a grain mill is probably pretty small. So now a new sort of action is required: would it be worth it for you to purchase one? There are a ton of factors to consider, but adding up random data into a contrived semblance of an argument is one of a very few things that I'm pretty darned good at, so let me see if I can convince you.Do you buy whole wheat flour regularly?
If yes, you really should consider obtaining a mill. Consider it this way: subtract the cost of a pound of wheat from a feed mill (generally $.30 tops) from the cost of a pound of wheat flour from the grocery store ($.60-1.00, maybe more, depending on quality and sourcing--not all countries are regulated equally). So at the lower end you're saving $.30/lb on your raw material.The numbers work out almost as well for cornmeal: at about $.45 a pound in store minimum, and $.20/lb tops at the mill, means that doing your own milling with result in a significant savings.
But will the mill pay for itself if you aren't lucky enough to get one as a wedding present? There are multiple factors to consider. First, there are cheaper grain mill options available. The Victoria Commercial Grade Manual Grain Grinder with Hopper is available on Amazon.com for under $50, significantly shortening the time it would take for the mill to pay for itself. There are cheaper grinders still, but the Victoria has the best reviews I've seen for a mill in this price range--with the others you're taking a chance on ending up with an unusable product. Other options include purchasing a mill cooperatively with friends (preferably ones who live close by to make sharing easier) or finding a used one on craigslist or eBay.
Do you bake regularly?
OK, look, you need to bake regularly if you want to build capital. Unless you want to live on rice. In which case, God bless, you're a better man than I.What do you spend on white flour?
At the normal rate of $.25 per pound, white flour is tough to beat. (I buy loads of it in November and December when Wegmans has it for $.89/bag and Aldi tries to follow suit, putting it at a truly unbeatable $.17/lb). But field corn from the feed mill at $.20 actually does cost less than white flour at most times of the year, and if you soak it, it's healthier; cutting your flour in your morning pancakes with 1/2 cornmeal will give them a nice taste and texture and reduce the total cost of your breakfast.The economy of grinding wheat is a little trickier from a strictly cost standpoint: unless you get a stupendous price for wheat at the feed mill, the white flour from the store will probably be cheaper. On the other hand, white flour is white flour: devoid of all but calories, it's fairly limited in both interest and nutrition. Adding soaked whole wheat flour to your yeast breads will give them a boost of fiber and nutrients, in addition to a more complex flavor and texture; it will do the same for quick breads, biscuits and pancakes. I'll even add a little to my pasta dough if I happen to have any on hand. Raw, unaltered whole wheat flour like what you grind yourself is also rich in the enzyme phytase, meaning that adding a tablespoon of it to your other grains or legumes while they soak will help break down their phytic acid faster and more completely. And did I mention my favorite whole wheat chocolate chip cookie recipe? Hm, I guess I did. I'll add this: it reminds me of a granola bar in the very best way.
There are other grains out there, too, and their economy favors home grinding significantly. Barley and rye are available at feed mills for less than the price of wheat and yet cost much more at the grocery store. So for truly impressive waste-not cred, experiment with using alternative grains in all your baking and pancake capacities.
Other Considerations
Grinding grain with a hand grinder does take time and energy. It's actually a pretty good whole-arm workout, especially if you arrange your mill in such a way that you can change positions frequently to target specific muscle groups. My husband can grind way faster than I can, coming up with 4-6 cups in the half hour it would take me to grind 2-3. If you put the grinder in sight of a device with internet access you'll be all set: open a favorite YouTube playlist or Netflix show and suddenly you'll find yourself with more flour than you know what to do with. (If you do what we do and put it in the basement where the wireless doesn't go it will be a long, boring slog--probably not the best plan.)A Vitamix or similarly expensive blender can grind grain admirably, saving a ton of time; if you already have one all you have to do is hit the feed mill for corn and/or wheat and you're off to the races. And, true to form, you can get a grain grinding attachment for your KitchenAid, so if you're among the Lucky Few it would definitely be an economical option. In either case grinding grain will be a much less arduous process (though still noisy).
In conclusion, if you are concerned about the quality of the food that you can afford for your family, or if you wish to keep trimming the fat from your grocery budget, I encourage you to consider grinding your own whole grains. The results are delicious, nutritious, more filling than refined flours, and fresher (and easier to digest!) than store bought whole grains. And, if you continue down the Waste-Not trail and start growing your own grains, you'll already have established habits of grain grinding that will allow you to seamlessly enter your new, more self-sufficient lifestyle. For our family it's been more than worth while.
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