Milling your own flour

[Mrs. The Butler]

Does anybody here mill their own flour?  I try to be good about making our own sandwich bread, and in general we do a fair bit of baking (I'm guessing I go through 2 5-lb bags of flour per month for 2 adults and 2 preschool-age boys, maybe a bit more if I'm making lots of bread).

A few months ago I was doing some research and trying to calculate the numbers and I was surprised that it didn't seem like it would really be a money savings to buy the wheat berries, but math isn't always my strong point, so maybe I was miscalculating.

Are the main reasons people mill their own flour because of the health benefits or novelty of doing it themselves?  Can it actually work out to be a money-savings?  (Obviously with grain mills costing a few hundred dollars, it would either have to be a big money savings, or the mill would have to be worked hard for a long time to pay it off, or I'd have to find a good deal on a used one.)

Any experience with manual vs. electric?

[Lkxe]

I don't have any idea how the costs work out to so can't help there, but everyone I know that mills their own flour does it for food storage- the wheat berries last longer than milled flour. They buy in bulk usually from the LDS Cannery or other food storage companies. And have both a manual and electric mill- electric(expensive) for regular use and manual( lots of work) in case of catastrophe.

[MicroRN]

I think it's usually for the longer-term storage of the wheat berries vs flour, with a health bent.  I think there's also some bible verse about grinding grains?  Not sure about that, but I seem to recall seeing something about it on someone's blog.  Financially, it may not be worth it considering how cheap flour is.  If you want to grind your own for other reasons, that's a different matter.         

At Costco, a 25lb bag of bread flour is under $10.  Even at our local grocery store, we can get a 10lb bag of flour for about $4.50.  I haven't heavily price-compared wheat berries, but the last time I saw them, wheat berries were about $20 for a 25lb bag.  I'm sure there are places you can get it more cheaply though.   

[zataks]

Got a big bag of Montana Wheat berries a couple years ago at Wal-Mart of all places.  I milled it down to flour in my VitaMix.  Haven't bought the dry goods blending container yet, just the normal one, so it comes out a little rough but it tastes delicious. 

Cheaper than flour?  Probably not unless you can get berries super cheap.  It is healthy and delicious though.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

I don't do it personally but the blogger Frugal Girl grinds her own flour. You might try searching her blog to find out if she saves money and why she does it.

[1967mama]

I mill my own flour with a Nutri-mill and am very happy with this machine.  A super article on the oxidization process that happens once you grind grain can be found here:  http://info.breadbeckers.com/deception-of-enrichment/  Its amazing what is lost within the first 72 hours after grain is ground.

Freshly ground wheat tastes very neutral, unlike whole wheat flour bought at the store, which is infact already turning a little rancid, hence the "wheaty" taste that most people don't like when they think of whole wheat flour.

Hope this helps!

[MayDay]

Once I accidentally bought a 25 lb bag of wheat berries instead of flour.

I discovered that if I soaked and sprouted them, I could grind them up into wet doughs like pancake batter in the blender.

I know some people who avoid the rancididy issue by buying freshly ground flour and keeping it in the freezer.

[Metta]

The main reason I mill my own flour is because it tastes a lot better. It doesn't save money over buying flour from the store. Once i factor in the cost of the mill, it costs more. I did the math over and over trying to make it come out cost-effective, but it didn't. In the end, I swore to my husband I would pay for it by reducing eating out. I find that my own fresh-milled baked goods taste so much better that eating out is a bit of a disappointment, so that has worked out.

[Simple Abundant Living]

I sometimes grind flour in our blendtec.  It doesn't get the flour quite as fine as a dedicated wheat grinder, though.  I don't know if I'd do all my flour.  It's a small inconvenience and usually I'm looking to save time/energy.

[Greg]

My wife mills her bread flour from berries, organic I think.  Fresher, keep better, and she can have the flour grind she wants for her bread recipe.  I don't think it's cheaper, but might be for the kind of berry/flour that results.  She uses a grinder attachment on her KitchenAid stand mixer.  Noisy but effective.