"The five hundred pounds of wheat and dried corn in your basement aren’t going to do you much good if you don’t have a way to crack or grind the grains. A hand mill is an essential part of your food storage. Although electric grinders seem more convenient, they are useless if there is a power outage." --"Getting Into the (Wheat) Grind"That being said -- do you have a way to crack or grind the grains you are storing? If not, may I suggest that a grinder be on the top of your list of things to acquire. There are several brands on the market. I can only tell you about the two that we have been using.
Our electric grinder is called "The Kitchen Mill" by K-TEC. It will grind very fine flour to coarse. We purchased it in 1993 and have never had any problems with it. Love it!
Our hand grinder is called the "Grain Mill" by Back to Basics. It adjusts from fine to coarse. It doesn't grind as fine as our electric grinder, but you don't need electricity for this one. It also takes a little longer to grind your grains than the electric one. Children seem to like to turn the handle on this one.
I googled "K-Tec wheat grinders" and found these links:
Canning Pantry has the K-Tec/BlendTec wheat grinder ($179.00 plus free shipping) at http://www.canningpantry.com/kitchen-mill.html
(Wow! I paid $179.95 plus tax in 1993.)
Harvest Essentials has both the K-Tec/BlendTec wheat grinder ($179.95) and the Back to Basics Manual Grain Mill ($74.95).
The Wonder Mill and the Wonder Mill Jr. are ALSO GREAT grinders! We LOVE ours and use them constantly. YOu are So right about wheat being useless, unless you just want to eat boiled wheat berries, day after day.......without a grinder. Grinders make all grains SO versatile!
ReplyDeleteThanks SO much for all the research you do. This site is fantastic!
Lynn, thanks for your feedback! :)
ReplyDeleteI googled "Wonder Mill" and found this link:
http://www.thewondermill.com
I have both of the mills you show. I'm very happy the with the Back to Basics handmill...but the K-tek has an exhaust vent that blows flour dust into the room. Other than that, it has worked really well for 20 years. I had a brilliant idea to use it outside and then store it in undercabinet of my bbq grill. Next time I went to use it, the outside temperature combined with the warmth from storing it warm after use produced condensation that grew mold like you can't imagine. Bye Bye K-tek. I'm buying a Nutrimill this weekend. I saw one demonstrated and besides the great flour, there was no flour exhaust.
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