Grinding Fresh Flour for Bread

I start off the grind with whole wheat berries from my storage area. This bag indicates that this is Organic Summer (OS) wheat packaged in 2015. While flour itself only has a one year shelf life, whole wheat berries can last 30 plus years in proper storage. I ordered my bluestone granite mill from Amazon for a reasonable price. Check it out here….https://www.amazon.com/Grinder-Bluestone-Pulverizer-Soybean-Classic/dp/B0D9NLFSX3/ref=pd_lpo_d_sccl_1/138-7196527-9039456?pd_rd_w=5Ll2y&content-id=amzn1.sym.4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_p=4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_r=VQZCPA7XQ9Z8W73VKMFM&pd_rd_wg=bME3n&pd_rd_r=add0124b-09ee-4909-9898-e04f8162fac0&pd_rd_i=B0D9NLFSX3&psc=1

Stored wheat berries

Why grind your own flour, when you can buy it fairly cheap in a grocery store ? Well, for one thing store bought flour has had the wheat germ removed to offer a longer shelf life. Fresh flour with wheat germ is only good for about 10 days maximum due to the natural oils in the grain. The germ is small in the grains, but the most nutrients are contained in it.

• Vitamins: Wheat germ is a good source of various B vitamins (like folate and thiamin), and vitamin E, an antioxidant.

• Minerals: It contains minerals like magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, and manganese.

• Protein: Wheat germ is a good source of plant-based protein.

• Fiber: It's also a good source of dietary fiber, which aids digestion.

• Healthy fats: Wheat germ contains healthy unsaturated fats.

Loading the grindstone

I load the first grains into the hopper, and start turning the top stone.

First grind

The stones I have provide no adjustments for how fine a grind I get from the mill. So I experimented by placing a 25 pound weight from my home gymnasium on top to add a bit of pressure. It worked great ! In this picture you can see the first run of the mill and how it cracked the hulls of the grains. I had to scoop everything up and run it through again to get a finer flour.

Bowl of first run grain

I placed a small bowl under the spout to sweep the grindings into a load them up for another run.

Bag of fresh flour

Each successive run produces a finer batch of flour for each grind. Keep in mind that this is a really small grindstone in the grand scheme of things, so you are going to spend a bit of time producing useable amounts of flour. Also, keep in mind that the flour will contain particles of hull and cracklings of wheat germ. For breads, this is absolutely perfect, because the bread will contain a fair amount of fiber. The human body needs fiber for digestion. The germ is high in protein as well.

For a finer flour such as that for pastries, you will need to use a flour sifter to separate the fiber from the flour itself. Pastry flours make for some amazingly soft and fluffy biscuits. Being a Southerner, biscuits are a staple for any Southern dishes. Biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast, biscuits for dragging through a shallow dish of butter and molasses, biscuits to go along with supper in the evenings too. Anything baked from fresh ground wheat flour has a taste that can’t be duplicated by store bought stuff. It’s amazing !

Bottom stone being brushed off

Cleanup is pretty straightforward. I separate the top stone from the bottom one and give everything a good brushing.

Top stone showing the grooves.

I’ll need to make a large wooden base to set this entire grindstone up on. Grinding grains makes a heck of a mess on the counter tops. But the best thing about this setup is that it’s fairly mobile and I can move it around where I want to. And unlike the large water powered mills of the old days, I don’t need multiple people to operate it.