Posts Tagged ‘corn’



Grinding Corn

Friday, March 25th, 2011





A-Maize-ing!



 photo MP910221100_zps46d7d464.jpg




It doesn’t take much to thrill me. I’m one of those people who appreciates the little thngs in life! For probably 12 years, I’ve been grinding wheat to make our breads and other flour products and it’s been grand. I started out with a hand grinder – a Lil Ark – that has large, stone burrs to grind the grain. You’ve heard of stone ground meal, I’m sure. Well, we don’t have a watermill, but we still have the stone ground flour!


 photo LilArkGrinder_zps4e7b9f94.jpg



Mr. Fix-It, ever the mechanical genius, watched as I rotated ’round and ’round with the handle to the mill to get about 2 cups of flour for 20 minutes of work. Good exercise, but rather boring. He knew he could get a motor to do the work for me and so he promptly set out to do just that. Two fly-wheels, a couple of auto belts, some pine and an old trash compacter motor later and Mr. Fix-It had indeed fixed it! It isn’t much to look at, but by jove, it does an incredible job. It stays in the garage because it is huge and kinda messy.


 photo Nutrimill_zps6fc00ad5.jpg



And then I graduated. I got a Nutrimill…the grinder of electric grinders. What took my Lil Ark an hour to accomplish, the Nutrimill does in 10 minutes. All the more flour to bake with, my dear!


These grinders can be found at a number of places online and they are sooooo worth it. Some online sources include:

  • Sonrise Whole Grains
  • Pleasant Hill Grains
  • The Urban Homemaker
  • Ebay


  •  photo PICT1253_zps3b9a2602.jpg



    So all of this time, I’ve been making breads and such with wheat flour, but it never occurred to me to purchase corn and do my own cornmeal. Duh. Well, today ended that bit of ignorance. I purchased a sack of corn from Sonrise Whole Grains in Midwest City, and came home to experiment. I used both grinders and combined the results. The Nutrimill grinds the corn pretty fine, which is great for coating fish, while the Lil Ark makes a more grainy meal, which is good for cornbread. But together, it makes a-maize-ing cornbread.



     photo PICT1251_zpsec46b0a4.jpg



    As a result, for dinner tonight, I made cornbread by my recipe posted previously and served that with some home canned beef stew. Now THAT’S livin’!


    Happy Grinding!



    MB
    Please join us on FaceBook!!


    Join in the conversation by leaving a comment below!


    Image and video hosting by TinyPic