Provident Principles and Practices
© David Edwards, 2008
© David Edwards, 2008
PRINCIPLES: In Essentials of Home Production & Storage, 1978, Church members are encouraged to include grinders as part of their expanded home storage.
PRACTICES: Grinding or milling can prepare wheat, other grain, or older beans for use in disaster cooking. After grain is cracked, crushed or ground, it can be used in hot cereal or baked goods. Baked goods made with fresh flour can be delicious. For bread making, finely ground flour is desirable. Ground soaked beans can be used to thicken soups or stews, mix in with flour, or make bean cakes or dips, adding protein. Whole beans may cook in hours; ground beans cook in minutes.
Electric milling. Specialized electric grinders can mill wheat, other grains and beans if AC power is available. While electric mills are much more convenient to use than manual mills under normal conditions, electric mills are useless if the power goes out. Long-term outages can happen.Manual milling. For milling when AC power is out, a manual mill is essential. A manual grain mill of high quality is one of the most important emergency tools to own. Milling grain on any kind of manual mill requires hard labor, but milling grain on a low-quality manual mill is a real grind! Also, low-quality mills may not last long, and they may not be able to mill grain finely enough for baking.
Best manual grain mills. Good manual grain mills are not cheap. You can use Google to identify a good one. Many experts recommend one particular mill. If you get a mill with stones, get burrs, too.Stones and burrs. Manual grain mills use stone plates or metal burrs for grinding. Dry grains, such as wheat, can be ground with stone. Stone grinding is needed to obtain fine flour. Stone cannot be used, however, for grinding grains or beans having more than 10-12% oil or moisture. These smear on stone plates, reducing grinding power and/or plugging a mill. For oily or wet grains or beans, metal burrs are required. Use high-quality burrs from which no metal tends to flake off during use.
Pipe method for cracking grain. A pipe that fits closely within another, shorter pipe can be used to crush and crack small quantities of grain or bean at a time. Slide the inner pipe up and bring it down hard repeatedly, cracking the grain or bean against a hard bottom surface, such as a hard metal plate. Remove the cracked grain or bean from the pipes and use it in cooking. Even a child can crack grain or bean this way. A similar method utilizes a can and several pipes taped together.
Mortar and pestle and other systems for cracking grain. Mortars and pestles made of stone or porcelain can crack and grind small quantities of grain at a time . . . very slowly! You can use a pestle to pound grain and crack it, crush it, and grind it on the bottom and sides of a mortar. In a pinch, you can grind a little grain in a coffee/spice grinder or between two smooth paving stones.For more, see www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4kP9EgmBjQ&feature=related; www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWc_k3lXXpA; http://www.countrylivinggrainmills.com/index.php?action=articles&which=Bike.txt; http://ce.byu.edu/cw/womensconference/archive/2005/sharing_stations/pdf/49c.pdf (also 49d.pdf – change c to d); www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvLNOBTyxHw; www.sharingsustainablesolutions.org/?page=172
Photo Credits:
Cracked wheat: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Sa-cracked-wheat.jpg
Mortar and Pestle: www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/breath/breath_exhibit/Asthma/asthma_images/stock/IIICa71.gif
