Self-Sufficiency in Style
gadgets and gizmos
the flour mill
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Self-Sufficiency in Style gadgets and gizmos the flour mill |
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One use
. and another, very modern and different. |
Mills are everywhere about us.
References to mills dominate our literature and our landscape. We don't even think about it as we drive down Mill Road to Mill Cottage or use such phrases as "trouble at mill." The vivid imagery of the hymn "Jerusalem" with its "dark satanic mills" defiling the "green and pleasant land" of England. We all know of course that the industrial revolution brought the use of water and coal to power the mills of England to produce the era of cheap fabrics from the cotton fields of America. We are familiar with the metal wind mills raising water in the prairies and their modern use to produce electricity. Mills are everywhere. |
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windmills of East Anglia or Holland, or the water mill of Constable's famous
painting. We know it all started with the corn and harvest. We know they were used to grind the grain into the flour that made our daily bread: museum pieces now, of course, although a very few still function to produce real flour. Even if we bake our daily loaf, we hardly ever think of the mill that made the flour - and the possibility and advantages of making flour for ourselves. |
Water or wind was the only power available, unless animals or humans turned the wheels. |
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The reality is that it is perfectly
possible for the individual to make their own flour and use the by-products
for cereals. The writer did it more than twenty years ago. |
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Allergies to foods are acknowledged as becoming more and more common in our modern society. Many are forced to take an interest in exactly what is in their food, and the rest of us can take a delight in getting "back to basics." |
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The process is fairly straight forward. You acquire a bag of grain, it could be of wheat, oats, barley, rye or maize, making sure it has not been treated in any way. You pour the grain in one end, either turn the handle or flick the switch - and out comes flour the other. Depending on the mill, you may or may not have to sieve the end result. Some machines will handle the separation of crude flour into flour and bran. The exact proportions of each will depend on the mill, the settings, the nature of the grain and your requirements. The permutations are endless. |
Time to get to know a farmer.
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Two processes: Milling and Sifting. |
You get a lot of flour and bran from a little grain. It is quite surprising. You should not be surprised at the amount of flour particles that will get into the air with some machines and grain. The Miller was not called "Dusty" for nothing. |
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What do you need? One option is attachments to the food processor. |
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The Food Mixer is an obvious choice. You can add a mill, complete with
hopper for the grain, as illustrated on the right. It does not separate the flour from the grain, and is not that adjustable, but it does perform the first part of the process adequately enough. |
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The sieve can be used for other jobs too - stoning damsons today. |
The sieve with rotating paddle is the
other attachment you will need. The combination of the two devices on the single food processing work-horse will give a perfectly adequate flour, unless you want larger quantities or more flexibility. The writer does not like brown or wholemeal bread and refuses to be intimidated. All appeals on "health grounds" are very properly spurned. We never succeeded in getting the food processor to produce anything approaching white flour, even though we still bake our own bread every day, using a Bread Maker. |
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For most Westerners bread is, of course, the staff of life. Most eat both bread and its by-products every day in many and various forms - not just bread. Many will consider it worthwhile to produce more homemade flour over a wider range and in greater quantity. |
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There is a vast range of mills available. Some are rather more primitive
than the food processor and relying on hand power, others larger and more
convenient. A good source of advice, grain mills and flakers is Hehlis Holistics |
A dedicated grain mill. |
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There are many more articles and series on this site dealing with gadgets and gizmos. Some gadgets take some finding, and not just on this site. When searching the web for a supplier, remember to use a wide choice of words including those in use in both the US and Britain. |
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...enlisting mechanical help - at Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner. September, 2006 |
