What Grain Mill should I get?

Maschil

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moolie said:
Maschil said:
moolie said:
We have the Family Grain Mill as well, when we purchased the motorized version, the hand crank base came with it at no charge. We got it from Pleasant Hill Grain. It works very well both motorized and cranked by hand. Baking with fresh ground wheat (and other grains, we have tried oats, barley, rice, dent corn not popcorn, and millet as well as legumes like pinto beans) is wonderful.

There is a bit of a learning curve if you are going for 100% whole grain bread--we've not mastered it yet so we usually add up to one third all purpose flour to most whole wheat recipes. Occasionally I make white bread/buns that are actually 1/2 freshly ground oat flour, my family loves them :)
was yours 270 bucks???
I wanna say it was around $245? when we bought it, maybe it was on sale? It was a couple of years ago. Still going strong, very well-built, we use it every day or two.
i think i may just go this route, but i need to first learn how to bake good wholesome bread, 2nd grow my own grains in zone8a, and 3rd, learn how to harvest them. LOL.
 

terri9630

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My Dr just let me borrow her magic mill (very old) and I love it. Its huge and heavy but takes no time to grind the wheat. She let me borrow her sun oven to try out too. Had a wonderful roast for dinner.:drool
 

baymule

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After studying grain mills until my eyes are crossed and visions of crusty fresh loaves dance in my head, I think I have decided on the Family Grain Mill. I like it that the motorized and hand operated come together. I have a question, just how fine will it grind the flour?

I called the Home Storage Center (Mormon) in Houston. Their price for 25 pounds of hard red wheat is $11.45, they keep it in stock and I am going Tuesday with a friend to buy some. (and whatever else I find) :lol: If you want to find a Home Storage Center near you, look in the thread I started about which wheat to buy, red, white, hard or soft. I think the link to the list is on page 2.

Now I think I will get some nasty ol' store bought flour out of the freezer and make some bread. :D
 

ORChick

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When I was doing research into grain mills a couple of years ago I was told by someone no longer on SS (maybe a couple of someones, I don't really remember) that the Family Grain Mill didn't grind very finely, and one often has to send the flour through a second time to get a good enough flour for bread. I chose that mill anyway (because I really wasn't sure if it would get much use in this household, as DH was, and still is a little, resistant to whole wheat), and I didn't want to spend a huge amount on an experiment. (I would have rented one first, if I had had that option).
However, I have to say that that has not been my experience - the mill adjusts to a very fine grind, and I have never had to send the flour through twice. There is, of course, a small amount of bran that doesn't get really fine; I don't consider that a problem, but if I did I would just sift it out. I am very happy with this mill. And even DH is coming around to the advantages. Freshly ground grain is so much nicer than that which has been sitting on the store shelf for who knows how long. And, while whole wheat still doesn't thrill him, I have found that freshly ground rye reminds him of his youth in Germany - packaged rye flour never got much of a positive reaction from him at all, but he quite likes the bread from freshly ground.
 

k15n1

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Maschil said:
k15n1 said:
I bought a Wonder Mill Junior this spring. I have personally verified that it works for corn, wheat, rice, beans, and peanuts.

The official marketing video is mainly accurate except in speed. It just takes longer when you're grinding flour by hand. I've measured the speed and I get about 400 g in 10 minutes. Now that I'm looking at it again, it looks low and I want to re-measure it. But the point is, speed may be an issue. They do sell a pulley and the mill can be motorized, up to 80 RPM.

From the kitchen notes:

Test of WonderMill Junior grinding time, 22:58 12 May 2012
Started at 22:58 with 492 g. At 23:08, 902 g. Thats 410 g in 10 minutes, or 41 g/min.
155 g equals 1 C, so its 2.6 C for all that. so 0.26 C/min or 3.8 minutes/C
what was your price for it???
Don't remember exactly. Mr Google says ~220.

http://beprepared.com/product.asp?p...D=GLAFP M530&gclid=CNmT8sDRxLECFYcBQAodnl4Azg
 

moolie

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Ditto ORChick's experience with the Family Grain Mill--it grinds quite finely. :)
 
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