New/Old Kitchen Gadget

I was so excited the day that I read an email from the Local Food Coalition stating that there was a grain mill for sale.  I have been wanting and researching what kind of mill I would want to get for probably 2 years.  The Family Grain Mill that Peaceful Valley was high on my list and probably what I was going to get with the added flaker attachment .  I had been eying others but kept coming back to that one, quality, versatility, hand/electric, you couldn’t loose.  But a friend of mine wanted to sell her grain mill from a company I have never heard from so I had to do a quick search and found out that if this baby worked it would be a great relic of past farm kitchens and would probably outlast me.  We found out it was created in 1964 by Lee engineering, and they still made parts and refurbished them.  I had to grab this, it was too exciting, but now I’m going to still need a flaker.

Why would you want a grain mill you might ask.  Most flour we use can be at least a month old, and flour from any grain or seed will loos nutrition and the oils will start going rancid after the seed has been destroyed.  The beauty of a seed is that it can hold all the information and nutrition for a baby plant to sprout, grow big, flower and reproduce seed.  The closer you use the flour to the time that it was a viable seed the better tasting and nutritious your food will be.  Now part of that system that seeds use to hold all that nutrition and maintain viability also creates a downside.  There are chemicals that bind the nutrients up and inhibit the spoilage, one way to get around that problem is to look at what traditional cultures did.  They soaked their whole or rolled grains and flour in water or whey.  When you soak the seed you trick it into thinking that it should prepare itself to grow and the inhibitors release the nutrients and the seed becomes easier to digest.  Sourdoughs and porridge are not so common now.  Grinding you own flours gives you more choices on the grain or seed used, and saves money as you buy whole bulk prices and larger quantities, or grow your own.  The hard winter wheat they use in most foods today have higher gluten content than before which can equate to being harder to digest by many folks.  If you are interested in growing some of your own grains and seeds you can take a look at “Homegrown Whole Grains” and choose some winter or summer crops that are great ground cover crops and make lots of bio mass for the compost piles.

Dry Winter But the Planting Goes On

A Sign of the Times

License and more Egg Cartons

To Everything There Is a Season

Egg Cartons and License

Thanksgiving Quail

Saving Small Farms for the Future

I Love Tomatillos

2012 Loomis Eggplant Festival