MY GRAIN MILL

  When I was pregnant with my first child, ten years ago, I was tipped off by a co-worker that there are such things as mills to grind your own grain with at home. That way you could get your flour full of the vitamins and minerals the grain includes naturally, without oxidation destroying any of it. Of course I got excited and bought one.
  A few months later my son was born, and I soon learned that I´d have to use the mill to grind only gluten-free grains. He was diagnosed with allergy to gluten. No problem. I then happily let my mill sing with buckwheat, millet, rice, and quinoa. All was fine, and I felt good knowing I was feeding my young child with the most nutritious type of grain there is: fresh.
  Until last January, when he was diagnosed with diabetes (as if his food allergies weren´t enough...). From then on I have gradually moved towards store-bought gluten-free flour mixes, because they contain psyllium and xanthan, both natural gelling agents, which lower then carbohydrate content of the baked goods. And I realized that my son cares more for cooked grains, like pasta and rice, than baked ones.
  I made a radical decision about my grain mill: I´d contaminate it with gluten! Now I have another little one to take care of too (who´s not allergic to anything... yet...), and she likes baked goodies a lot. Bread is one of her favorite foods. She too deserves the best nutritional content of grains, and now it is her turn (and mommy enjoys it just as much).
  Here we go:

My daughter loves everything food. Tasting, mixing, packing, stacking, crumbling, you name it. She´s always around when somebody is in the kitchen, and she´s always ready to eat. =) Probably the only minus to the mill is it´s loud noise (actually it is not the mill itself, but the grain being crushed. Oat is soft and keeps less noise than the hard kernels of rice).

In go the kernels...

... and out comes the 100% whole grain flour. Voilá!

Look how precious and cute these little spelt kernels are! And so filling, energy giving, and nutritious. Awesome!

  A couple of weeks ago I drove to the nearest-by organic farmer, that I know of, who grows grains and bought my first "test" batch of spelt (15 kg / 33 lbs) and rolled oats (3 kg / 6.6 lbs). My oh my... I´m blown away by the taste and texture of both. The porridge I have made with their oat is like 70% more tasty than the usual store-bought stuff. Unbelievable.

  And the mill grinds on. After all these ten long years, it still runs like a dream. I wish it long, useful life, with us for decades more to come!