I want a grain grinding 101 course. I am so interested in this. I saw a whisper mill online. Is this a good mill? Is it well worth the effort? Cost effective?
I was reading the walton feed site. Should I look for health food stores, co-ops, or feed stores? Where do I start? :jabber:

Sara

Sara, great question. I just purchased a Whisper mill and love it. You can grind rice, popcorn, wheat of any kind (except flax) and it is quiet.

When I went to purchase it I had planned on getting a hand grinding mill but my dh said no because I have fibromyalgia and my right arm is bad on many days.

I looked at 3 mills and here is what I found. Remember the prices are probably way higher than yours because I live in Canada.

- K-Tec was priced at $299 w/o taxes. It was VERY noisy and sounded like my dh's planer that he plains wood with. The saleman said it was comparable to the Whisper mill except for noise.

- The next one I forget the brand name was $359 and was a little quieter but not the quality of the K-Tec or the Whisper mill.

- Whisper mill was next at $389 and was much much quieter and I fell in love with it, purchased it and now am using it. btw - it has a lifetime warranty (which sold me).

Wheat ground from home has the wheat berry in it and is far healthier for you than the regular flour you purchase at stores. I purchased my wheat from the store I bought the machine from and its organic wheat.

Cost effective - probably will cost more than store bought bread, but I know its healthy for my family, I know whats being put into the bread and the wheat is organic. Gotta love that.

Heres a website you might find interesting:

http://www.grainmaster.com.au/

http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/

http://www.nutritionlifestyles.com/whisper.htm

HTH

I have been looking on lehmans.com and really checking it all out. LOL This may be my Christmas gift wish. hehe

As far as the grain goes, would you buy it directly from a feed store sometimes or is that dirty? (pardon the wording not sure how else to ask this) I wondered how clean the grain is from there and if I would have to sift through etc. I guess I should start looking to see what types of organic stores and health stores are nearby and see what they carry.
What do you store your grain in? Do you have problems with insects?
Also, can the mill handle coffee beans? (not essential, I do have a little electric grinder, mostly just curious)
You mentioned popcorn which is a first for me. Are you saying I could make a cornmeal from it?
Thanks for all of your input. It's so appreciated. :)

Sara

In answer to your questions:

I can purchase my wheat from a feed store but would then need to be very careful whether there was any dirt in it. That would definitely nullify my warranty. When I purchase it direct from the store where I purchased my grain mill, it is guaranteed to be clean and organic. It would be cheaper though to purchase it direct from the feed store or even a farmer if you could. It would only take a little longer to make sure its clean.

I store my grain in the bags they come in so far. I just recently purchased some plastic pails from a bakery (make sure food was in them and not chemicals if you find any). Yes you could get bugs if you store freshly ground grain too long. The trick to that is (in fact with all flour) is to freeze it for a couple of days. Kills all the bugs if there are any.

Here are a couple of sites for storage:

http://www.nursehealer.com/Storage.htm

http://backwoodshome.com/articles/tate55.html

http://www.cairns.net.au/~sharefin/Markets/Alt6.htm

If you want more links I have more. :D Can you tell this is a passion of mine.

Yes you can make cornmeal out of popcorn. I have a great recipe for cornmeal if you'd like it.

Here is a list of what you can grind in it:

wheat (hard and soft)
oats
rice
triticale
Dried Pinto beans
dried green beans
popcorn
split peas
buckwheat
rye
millet
sorghum (milo)
dried mung beans
soybeans
dried field corn
chick peas

You cannot grind the following:

sugar
sunflower seeds
nuts (all types)
sesame seeds
flax seed (it is oily and gums up the grinder)
coffee beans
peanuts
dried fruits (including dates and raisins)

HTH and that I've answered all your questions.

Thank you so much. I went and read some of the links. I'll read more in a few. Yes, please post the cornmeal recipe. I won't get to use it for awhile, but am happy to have it handy for when I am ready. :)
Tell me what you started out with making.
Does the mill come with any recipes?

I used to live in upstate NY and they preserved an old water wheel flour mill and made it into a fine dining restaurant. I can see me now..."Gabe, I want an 1800's water paddle wheel so I can stone grind." LOL What a riot I am. Ok, back to Earth.

I am filled with a million questions. Like what would the different uses be between the hard and soft wheat?

Thanks for being such a wonderful source of info for me. I'm headed back to read some more.

Sara

Sara I'll dig up the recipe later today and post. Right now the kids are calling me and I'm off to make pizza for supper.

I'll try to answer your question about hard and soft wheat then too.

Here is a site about hard and soft wheat:

http://www.vegweb.com/glossary/janan376.shtml

http://www.vegweb.com/glossary/docs/janan382.shtml

Figured I'd better get this done before I forget.

Here is the recipe:

Corn Bread (makes a 9x13 pan but if cut in half will do an 8x8 square cake pan)

Pre heat oven to 375. Grease a 9x13 inch pan
Grind popcorn and wheat for flour (hopper full of grain)

Combine in a bowl:
1-1/2 cups cornmeal
1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
scant 1/2 cup white sugar (or squirt honey in with the liquid ing.)
2 TBSP Baking Powder
1 tsp salt

Mix the liquid ing. with a whisk in a large measuring bowl then add to the dry ing.

2 eggs
2 cups milk
1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil
(honey if you didn't add sugar above)
(I sometimes sub a bit of leftover plain yogurt in here as part of the milk but not too muc.)

Mix dry and wet together well and pour into 9x13 pan and
BAKE for 35 To 40 minutes or till toothpick comes clean and brown on top.

This is delicious. This recipe was given to me by a friend.

Here is a wonderful recipe book:

Eat More Whole Grains. Its a Canadian book so I'm not sure if you can get it in the States.

Here are a couple more websites you might enjoy:

http://www.xmg.com/bread.htm

http://www.suntimes.com/output/cookbook/bread1.html.new

Probably the best way to find out great recipes is to find a really good whole grains cookbook.

If you have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer then you can get a grain attachment for it for less than $100 (even cheaper on Ebay). Works wonderfully! And I dont have to tell you how high quality that KA products are. If you dont have a KA mixer, they are priced about $180 at Wal Mart. And I would be lost without mine. ;)
I get my wheat from the feed store at $8 for 100 pounds. I also buy corn there for cornmeal as well. I dont buy popcorn. For us its not as cheap. I get the corn for the same price, $8 for 100 pounds. Ive never had a problem with dirt. Im sure you could just rinse it out and then let it sit out to dry if you wanted to make sure?
I store my un-grinded grain in a grain bin from the feed store. I grind a few pounds at a time. Place it in the freezer for a day or two then store it in a rubbermaid container.
The whole wheat flour you get is alot better for you,plus who can beat $.08 an pound? Good luck Sara!
God Bless,
~Michele~

Michele, have you heard anything about KA burning out if using the attacment too oftenl.

I've heard some say that they've heard that, others have had no trouble whatsoever. I do have a 6 qt. KA but am happy with my Whisper mill.

Have you ever bought wheat direct from the farmer?

I, too, have heard that the grinder attachment for the KA burns out the motor quickly. I am interested in hearing more concerning that if anyone has any info. I have the 4 1/2 qt., 300 watt KA.

Ive never heard of it. But Im not too worried I still have a warranty and if I have to have it fixed (motor repaced) in the long run Im sure it would cost less for me personally than the other grain mills. My Granny has had her KA for about 20+ years and used the dickens out of her grain mill attachment and meat grinder, never the first bit of problem. Another thing I like about it is that I dont usually keep any appliance that has only one function. Most of my appliances have to do aleast dual purpose for me to keep them since space is at a premium in our small home. ;)
Wheat doesnt grow well here in Florida, I wish it did. We are surrounded by citrus and sugar cane farmers. :)
God Bless,
~Michele~

A few lessons on grinding grain.

- It doesn't happen overnight that you learn which grains go together, which makes the best bread or even how much flour to use.

- You need to learn the amount of gluten to put in in order to help it rise and yet not put too much in to make it fall.

- Baking bread made from freshly ground grain is a total different experience than baking bread from flour purchased at a grocery store.

- when using the Whisper mill, make sure you hold it first when it starts to grind, else you soon become white. Ask me how I know this. On the Whisper mill is the container to hold the freshly ground flour. It hooks into the mill with a small hose. If you don't hold it (at first), it will come lose and .....well you get the picture.

- the Whisper mill is very easy to clean and doesn't take up much space on the counter.

Now that I've been using it for roughly a month, I wouldn't go to boughten bread and the kids said last night "mom don't ever buy store bread again, okay." I had to agree. There is ABSOLUTELY NO comparison.

I'm now on a search for new recipes with different grains.