I've become one of them

Many years ago, not long after my second child was born, I was invited to a get together of young moms by a lady from our old church. I thought how nice it was going to be to see some old friends and to make some new ones. Boy was this get together way different than I envisioned.

All the young moms there, except for my sister and me, had lots of kids, took daily walks with their family of over 2 miles and ground their own grain. With everything a mom had to do, why would anyone want to grind their own grain. I really don't remember anyone talking about the nutritional value or how the grinding took place but I could just see it in my mind.

This huge machine sitting on their kitchen table. A large hopper at the top which would hold the grain. And a large crank, which they would joyfully be turning and turning and turning. Spending hours just making flour, let alone the fresh bread their families would enjoy.

OK, now fast forward 8 years later...to the year 2009. I am participating in a homeschool co-op and it all comes back again. Women in the co-op are grinding their own grain. But how could they spend all that time grinding flour if there was homeschooling to be done, houses which needed keeping and fights between siblings to referee. The truth has come out. You purchase a machine that does it for you. WOW, revelation. That can't be that hard, can it.

I just had to see it in action. It was really easy. Measure out how much you needed, put it in the hopper and click the knob to on. And this time, all the nutritional informaiton was shared with me. When you purchase flour from the grocery store, all the nurtrients and vitamins has been removed but not so when you grind the wheat berries yourself. That flour is full of the good stuff.

I had already been making homemade bread for quite a few months from a recipe I found online. You can find it here: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx?page=4
I then purchased the book and have tried other bread recipes. Check it out!

So I borrowed some fresh ground flour from a friend with a mill and tried it in my Artisan Bread recipe. It was great! My kids even liked it and it was not a white bread. I ended up purchasing my own mill, getting my wheat berries and asking for friends bread recipes.

Now I am one of them....those people who grind their own grain into flour. I'll try to post the nurtional information later, I'm getting tired and may not last much longer on here.

Let me encourage you today, try something new. Maybe you're not ready to jump in and make a $230 purchase for a mill but maybe there is something you've been wanting to try or a dream you have had. Maybe you've heard about something and thought, there is no way that I can do that. Do some research, find someone else whose doing it and try it. Just don't ask my to go skydiving with you, I'm not quite there yet.