Benefits of Milling Your Own Flour
February 7, 2012, Submitted by: Lauren (Mrs. MSB) Tweet
Often times I am asked why I mill my own flour. Well, there are several reasons why I mill my own flour. I can you that my very first reason that prompted me into action was that I got tired of paying anywhere from $4.00 – $5.00 for a loaf of bread at the grocery store. I also got tired of waiting for the 5 lb. bags of flour to go on sale. I wouldn’t purchase a 5 lb. bag of flour for over $3.00 a pound. I thought that was crazy! At a price of $53.48 for 50 lbs. of wheat berries, including shipping, you can mill your own fresh wheat flour for about 80 cents per loaf.
Another reason that made me research other alternatives was the health aspect of whole wheat. Eating wheat bread and various other whole wheat products is supposed to be so much healthier for you and your family. The actual whole wheat berries, if stored properly, will last for 8 to 10 years. The wheat berries will not begin to lose nutrients until you mill some to make flour. This is because during the milling process, the shells of the wheat berries become broken. This is the reason why you should use freshly milled flour within a few days. The longer you let the flour sit, the more nutrients you will lose.
Why not buy wheat flour at the grocery store? Very simply, milled flour should be used in a few days and keeping it refrigerated will help keep it from going rancid sooner. The main point is that the sooner you use the flour you mill, the more benefits you will obtain. When you buy whole grain flour from the store, you have no idea how long it’s been there. How long was it sitting it a warehouse? Was it refrigerated after being milled and packaged? Was it refrigerated during transit? Milling your own flour will remove any doubts about the freshness and nutritional benefits you and your family will be receiving. And it will save you money!
Country Living Hand Grain Mill
L’Equip 760200 NutriMill Grain Mill
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“”"At a price of $53.48 for 50 lbs. of wheat berries, including shipping, you can mill your own fresh wheat flour for about 80 cents per loaf”"”
I purchase 50 Lb sacks of wheat from feed stores for about $15 per 50 lb sack..which is about 30 cents a pound…The only difference between this wheat and store bought wheat is feed wheat is not cleaned to the strict codes of the store bought wheat.. the little bit of chafe or twigs that can be cleaned out by soaking the wheat in water before using makes it much more affordable for survivalists on a budget.
You will need to dry the wheat in the oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes before storing in containers to lower the moisture content to ensure a long shelf life.. I’ve bought and processed 400 Lbs this way and make bread from it all the time.
P.S I left out a important tip: You must buy the FEED WHEAT not the SEED WHEAT as seed wheat has a anti fungal additive.
A lot of people grind up flour and put in spouts and then bake it for much additional added nutrition. Spouts taste pretty good in bread. Also I highly recommend getting a hand driven meat grinder, if you eat meat. At this point the way the world is, I would always buy everything that can be used manually.
@ Be Informed: Agreed! Any machine that can be operated manually is a great benefit. I think we have all experienced the occasional power outage. Plus, they help to keep us in physical shape.
Lauren
Be sure to check that the wheat you purchase is non GMO and is certified organic. It won’t cost much more than the chemically produced stuff. AND since your buying non GMO berries, if the SHTF for a really, really long time and you have some room to plant…you can plant those berries and grow some more wheat.
Am I correct in my belief that the typical flour mill is a plate-style mill, with the wheat berries being forced between two rotating plates?
For my home brewery I have a roller mill that is used to crush barley (and occasionally wheat) by dropping the grains between a pair of knurled steel rollers. The gap between the rollers is easily adjustable. Could this roller style of mill be used to mill wheat into flour as well?
@Trencher, It sounds like what you have may work. Here is a photo of the associated part in a ‘Country Living Grain Mill’. http://countrylivinggrainmills.com/grain-mill-parts/grinding-plates-for-the-country-living-mill.html
Hm… that’s close but not quite the same. My mill looks more like this: http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/product_images/w/RBmill2__32470_zoom.jpg
As you can see, it’s not grinding the grains so much as crushing them. This keeps the barley hulls intact so that they can act as a filter bed when rinsing the sugar out of the grains. A small amount of flour is produced but most of the barley endosperm is just broken into smaller pieces. I can tell you from experience that those intact hulls will make for a very dense and fibrous bread. However I have never tried to mill just wheat…
Any thoughts?
Trencher,
I have not used a grinder such as yours, but I can tell you that if your barley is being ‘crushed’ by your grinder, the same thing would happen to your wheat berries. I have also never made bread that would be that ‘coarse’. I’ve used a nine grain mixture in my breads, but that’s about as coarse as I get. May I suggest that you spring for a flour mill? Remember that when properly milled, your grain will not lose nutrients when you bake within a few days.
Take care,
Lauren