wheat berries in a grain mill hopper

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If you are wanting to start milling your own flour at home, you have come to the right location! In this post, we are going to explore:

WHERE are you going to source your grain?

HOW to store your grain?

WHAT to look for in a grain mill.

EDITED: since posting this, I’ve made a few additions and changes to my milling. I’ll post the new additions at the bottom.

Disclosure: Some of the links shared are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.

My Story

If you’re new around here, I’ve been using sourdough my whole life. My starter came from my great grandfather. He was a cowboy in the Owyhee Mountains in Idaho. He took his sourdough starter through the ranges wherever he went.

One Christmas, he gave my dad a sourdough stater and cookbook. He didn’t have much money that year, but little did he know, all these years later what a beautiful gift and legacy he had given us.

Since sourdough is in my blood and it’s my culture, I try to create the best recipes. And in doing so, milling my own flour is a great way to have the most nutrient dense flour available for my sourdough baking.

Do you want to start sourdough and haven’t yet? Head to my shop and grab a sourdough starter today! SHOP HERE

WHERE TO SOURCE YOUR GRAIN

I don’t know about you, but my local grocery store doesn’t have wheat berries or bulk grain for sale.

Rather, I need to order in my grains or drive 3-5 hours to a closer Mill and distributor.

Instead, I purchase the bulk of my bulk grains from azurestandard.com

Azure has a wide variety of grains available in bulk (25 & 50 pounds) to smaller trial sizes (ex. 33 ounce soft white wheat berries)

The most common wheat berries you will find are:

  • hard wheat: great for bread that needs structure like bread, bagels, pretzels
  • soft wheat: great to use for pastries, muffins, quick breads

I love the ancient varieties of grains like

You may be interested in milling other grains like:

I could keep going but I think you get the idea.

additionally (new edit as of 11/2024), I’ve also started using Palouse Brand for my bulk wheat and legumes as well as Grand Teton Ancient Grain. I’ll have some additional information at the bottom.

TIP: BAKING WITH FRESHLY MILLED FLOUR

Maybe you’ve tried mixing bread before and it “just didn’t perform” like store bought flour. Here’s your baking tip: for sourdough especially, Mix your freshly milled flour and water/liquids and allow it to rest for at least 30 minutes and up to 12 hours BEFORE combining the rest of your ingredients. Freshly milled flour, soaks up liquid at a different rate than that of store bought. You can see the difference in the hydration when you just let it rest. If you mix everything together, you might think it needs more water and you end up with an over hydrated dough.
If in doubt, let it rest.

you’ll notice this bag is Wheat Montana. I was able to snag 25# of wheat berries at our local grocery stores case lot sale for $15. You can shop amazon for their wheat berries, but you’ll be shocked at the price!

Now you can see why I shop Azure a lot or snag these at the case lot sale.

Storing your Grains

I store my bulk grains in 5 gallon buckets and mylar when needed. I buy my 5 gallon buckets, mylar bags and oxygen absorbers from Wallaby Goods.

and great news! you get a discount when you shop at Wallaby Goods. Just use code SOW5 in the discount code box at checkout from wallabygoods.com

Bulk grains, like wheat berries, will store indefinitely and there’s no need to Mylar or add oxygen absorbers if you dont want to. The berries are fine in a sealed bucket.

If you wanted to mylar, I would use the gallon sized gusseted bottom bags.

Wallaby Goods is also available on Amazon.com however my discount doesn’t apply here but you can still shop through THIS LINK.

Since writing this post, I also use Pack Fresh Mylar and oxygen absorbers. Their oxygen absorbers are certified organic and can be found HERE, use the code FLOURING to save

Grain Mills: WHAT TO LOOK FOR

If you’re looking to start milling, the grain mill I have is the Wonder Mill. I absolutely love it. I am able to grind a variety of grains into course, bread, or pastry flour. I recently made a loaf of Ezekiel Bread where I milled: barley, wheat berries, beans, and lentils at one time and this mill handles it like a champ!

ok but the noise?! The noise of my grain mill is actually not all that bad. Surprisingly it’s noisiest when the hopper is empty and not when it’s grinding.

There are a variety of Grain Mills on the market and they all have pros and cons. I love the Wonder Mill and would definitely buy it again.

Other things to consider when shopping for a mill:

  • hopper size
  • can it handle a diversity of grains
  • do you want to be able to grind a diversity of grains, beans, and legumes
  • flour grind settings (i.e. course, bread, and pastry)
  • do you need a separate bowl for milling or one that attaches to the mill

TIP:

If you ground too much flour for what your recipe called for, the best way to store your freshly milled flour is to place it in the freezer and do your best to use it up within the week.

Nutrimill

I have also been able to use the NutriMill Harvest Grain Mill. It is both pretty and functional! While I still love the WonderMill, if you really want a mill that FITS into your aesthetic and is decorative, you’ll want the Nutrimill Harvest Grain Mill.

You can shop for it HERE and use my code FLOURING to save on your purchase. Whenever NutriMill has sales, my code will also stack to give you an even deeper savings. Additionally, my code can be used site wide if you’re looking for a mixer (the Bosch mixer is on my wish list), you can save with my code too!


What you should never mill

I get it! You have something in its whole form, like flaxseed and you need ground flax. Should you run it through your grain mill?!

I’m going to say, be on the safe side and don’t do it!

Here are some items that my grain mill suggests NEVER milling:

  • Sugar
  • Sunflower Seeds and Nuts
  • Dried Fruit
  • Seasame Seeds
  • Flax Seed
  • Coffee Beans
  • Peanuts
  • Tapioca

Here’s what I would us instead:

I hope that you have learned one new tip from this post. I would love if you took the time to comment with what you learned.

Thanks for being here!

Happy Milling, BOOTS

follow along for more Simple From Scratch Nourishing Recipes and more food preserving tips @theflouringhome

NEW CHANGES:

Mill: the WonderMill is great! It does have a steel based grinder and I have been able to implement stone milling with my Nutrimill Harvest. The stone milling doesn’t heat the grain like a steel based grind does. I absolutely love the Harvest and Highly recommend it. It is an investment but worth if it you’re planning on milling a lot at home and you want a wide variety of grinds.

Grain: Palouse a brand has been a wonderful company to not just work with but o brain grain and legumes from. They either grow or regionally source their products from farms in the Pacific Northwest. While not organic, they are non-gmo and spray free! That’s a huge plus for me. You can order directly from them HERE, and save with code THEFLOURINGHOME

Mill on a Budget: meet the Impact! It’s perfect for the home miller who is tight on a budget but wants the great benefits of milling fresh flour. It sells for $199 which is unheard of for mills! It’s absolutely amazing! I do have one and thinks it’s an incredible option for being able to kill at home. The hopper holds 8 cups of flour which yields 12 cups of freshly milled. Use code FLOURING to save an extra $20 on your purchase HERE

Mixer: the Bosch mixer is a workhorse for my kitchen. It can handle 14, 1 pound loaves at a time but will also handle the delicate recipes like homemade frostings, meringue and marshmallows. It’s available in white or black and is a great asset to the home bakers kitchen. Again, you can save with code FLOURING here

EVERYDAY WHOLE GRAIN: if you’re going to freshly mill, then you’re going to want to invest in some tried and true recipes. My go to is from my dear friend Kristin, she created an amazing cookbook on fresh milling. You can grab a copy here, and use the code FLOURINGHOME10 to save an extra 10%.

Disclosure: Some of the links shared are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.

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