Finally our hand-powered grain mill is up and running. We’ve mounted it on a wooden butcher’s block that we bought at a garage sale. So far, it seems to be working really well — achieving a nice fine grind without taxing our arm muscles too much! We’ve already milled wheat to make a batch of scones and a loaf of sourdough bread. We thought the results were very tasty! We are very pleased with the 25 kilo bag of organic hard wheat berries that we ordered direct from the supplier. I’m amazed at the subtle scent of the freshly ground wheat flour. It smells nutty and sweet.
Kevin mills wheat with the Country Living Grain Mill
Once we’ve developed a bit more garden space, we hope to experiment with growing and milling our own grains to eat. Hard wheat wouldn’t be a good choice to grow in our bioregion, so we’ll be trying other grains — corn and amaranth, perhaps.
What kind of grain mill is it? It’s a Country Living Grain Mill. We bought it before we left the USA, and shipped it out to New Zealand with some of our other personal effects. We did some reading and asking around before we purchased the mill, and this one seemed like the best choice. The grinding plates are made of forged steel, which means they should be very durable. It also got good reviews for ease of use and the quality of the flour it can produce.
When I called to place an order for a Country Living Grain Mill, I found myself talking to the man who actually designed the mill. He obviously (and justifiably, we think!) takes real pride in his grain mills, and was very kind and helpful. We ordered a mill with a superficial blemish, in order to pay a lower price, but I’m not even sure I can see a blemish on our mill. Actually, we think it looks beautiful. It has the elegant solidity of a machine designed with care and built to last — something that has become rare in this age of plastic and flimsy throw-out appliances.
Hey! We have a country Living grain mill too…we’ve been using it for almost a year now, in our outdoor kitchen, and it is great. I recently bought a excercise bike for 50 cents at the auction and I plan to hook up a mechanism to grind with leg power.
We haven’t had a lot of time for bread making this summer, but I use the mill almost every morning for our breakfast cereal. Open up the grind and it does a great job cracking oats, rice, wheat, etc. We bring the cereal to a boil and then pop in inside a box of wool for 20 minutes where it cooks to perfection.
Happy milling,
zane
I bought a
WonderMill grain mill at kitchenkneads.com and it works great but I am tired of kneading the bread dough by hand. What mixer do you guys suggest? I’ve been looking at a Kitchen Aid or a Bosch but am open to other mixers if suggested.
Hi Christine,
I really enjoy kneading the bread by hand, so we haven’t even looked around to see what’s out there in the way of mixers. Kevin says he’s heard that the Kitchen Aid is really good, but doesn’t know about the other kinds. Good luck in your search!
Rebecca
[…] I wonder if there would be a way to hook up a bike like that to our Country Living Grain Mill. Don’t get me wrong, I love having bread made from freshly ground wheat, but when Becky […]
We are a little different from most who would view this site.
We don’t play “Life Style” we live it and not many do from what I’ve found.
We have a grain grinder and I figured it took more calories to gring the grain that we got out of eating it and so it was probably possable to starve to death eating great bread.
I made an electric powered machine to drive the mill.
It uses 1/4 hp motor, through two bike gears to a shaft with a starter gear on it and the drive plate itself is a Ford automatic flexplate.
We do grow all our own grains and enjoy out own style breads.
For a working drawing PDF Contact through http://www.iron-clay.com … you’ll find an email address there.
If anyone in Australia is thinking of buying a grain mill, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT buy from www retsel com au (trading name “Australian Retsel Distributors”). Despite having the apparent same name as Retsel in the US, this fraudulent operation has nothing do do with them – see retsel.com for more details. Stupidly, I bought one of the “Australian” units recently without checking the US site first. I should have known – the website is outdated & dodgy as hell but I thought, maybe they haven’t had time to update or something. The actual unit is a fairly convincing copy until you look closely and test the operation – the fit of parts is very sloppy. The owner of the operation has refused to refund my money and stated that the parts are supposed to be loose-fitting! Total crook. He even has a CEO message on his crap wesite signed by a “Mrs. Restel”! Wish I had paid a bit more for a Country Living Grain Mill instead… Be warned!
Hi, I came across your blog when looking for a source of wheatberries. This is all quite new to me, and my first hurdle seems to be sourcing fresh wholegrain ingredients such as wheatberries. Could you tell me where you get your whole wheat berries from?
Hi Philippa,
We get our wheat berries from Terrace Ferm. You can find them here:
http://www.organicpathways.co.nz/index.php
Good luck!
Rebecca
i have been wanting a country living hand grain mill for some time – does anyone know if can get them in nz – thought about ordering one from the usa but i got stung ordering stuff from there with the exchange rate and whatever else they overcharged me with, thanks