Minutes before Shabbos, we got a knock on the door and found our mailman waiting with a package.  Because time was so tight, we didn’t open it until tonight, when we saw our new grain mill!  After having my electric one out of service for several weeks last time, it made me think how dependent I am on it to use my bulk purchased grains as planned.  I also thought about The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and how they spend all day grinding enough wheat for a small loaf of bread for lunch and dinner, because all they had was a small coffee grinder.  And so I decided that having a manual grain mill would be a useful addition to our pantry supplies.

The one we chose was the Family Grain Mill.  It’s not the cheapest, but it’s not extremely expensive, either – it was $120.  I wanted something that worked reasonably well but didn’t have a huge price tag attached, and this was the one that seemed to best fit my needs.  Tonight the kids all tried it out – for hours.  🙂  It was one child after another taking turns grinding, even the 2.5 year old. 

It’s certainly not as efficient as the electric grinder, but it produces a wider range of grinds (ie, coarseness/fineness).  They had lots of fun, and the flour is freshly ground and ready to be made into pancakes for breakfast tomorrow morning.  🙂  I think the pancakes will taste even better to them than usual, knowing all the labor that went into the grinding. 

Avivah