Listen up,
kids! I have a belly full of
homebrew, this week's
bread is still
rising on the counter (in the special blue
bowl reserved for such), and while I know little about
C++, and remain amusedly confused by E2, I know a little about some things that mattered for thousands of years, and which still matter. Since the
Fall (so the predominant
cultural myth goes--) humans are forced to
till the land for
food.
The last few generations here in the States have abandoned this myth (and livelihoods that depended on land and local community) for the modern myth of industrial agriculture. Now people are more dependent than ever on folks they do not know. If you depend on strangers to feed you in exchange for cash, you live a more precarious existence than did your grandparents.
Trust your instincts.
My generation has completely fucked just about everyone born after 1970. Many of you have more than enough goodies to survive, yet feel curiously empty.
Take a small step towards self-sufficiency: get a grain mill. If you want to get off the utility grid tit, get a manual grain mill. Why?:
1) Wheat is cheap! A bushel (60 pounds) of wheat sells for under 4 dollars wholesale. A bushel will get you about 60 loaves of bread.
2) Fresh ground wheat tastes good!
3) Fresh wheat is far more nutritious than anything you can buy.
4) Wheat berries keep for years--a couple of bushels will feed you for over a year.
5) Home mills grind at cooler temperatures than commercial mills, preserving more nutrients.
6) Wheat berries at home allows for cheap and easy guerilla gardening--throw a few handfuls on a local vacant lot. If nothing else, the birds will appreciate the harvest.
A fine manual grain mill that will last a lifetime or two (your children may thank you) costs a bit (about $350). For the majority of noders here who fall in generations X, Y, or Z, the oldest of you can expect to live another 50 or so years (check your actuarial tables for a more precise number). 6 dollars a year, less than 2 cents a day, gets you a Country Lving Grain Mill, the current gold standard for manual mills. Fine electric and manual mills can be had for far less ($40 and up).1
The manual mills have burr plates made of steel or other durable material; the wheat berries are ground between two plates, resulting in flour. Some mills allow you to adjust the distance between the burrs, useful if you just want to crack some grain for breakfast or brewing.
Cheaper mills may require 2 passes of the grain to get fine, fluffy flour. More expensive hand mills, however, still require a bit of work to grid a couple of pounds of wheat (enough for 6 cups, or two loaves of bread). Women on the prairie were strong!
As I begin to grind, I feel my breath deepen as my muscles go to work. My glasses sometimes fog up a bit as I metabolize today's lunch now stored in my muscles, released as energy, carbon dioxide, and water, reversing the process that created the wheat berries2. In essence, sunlight powers my grain mill.
An electric mill takes the oomph out of milling. Some may be a bit loud, but in general they produce finer flour than hand mills. Still, I prefer to get the exercise, and I know I can still make flour even when the power blows.
Manual grinding works best when you work in a steady rhythm. Americana/folk works well as accompaniment. Tonight I ground to Son Volt's "Windfall."3 Some music makes more sense when the muscles sing along.
1If you are feeling really broke, and have the strength of an
orangutan, a mill can be made from three sections of steel pipe and some
tape. ( I refer you to http://www.bagelhole.org/article.php/Food/172/)
2Photosynthesis uses CO2, water, and sunlight with some scant nutrients form the soil to produce carbohydrates in plants. 6CO2 + 12H2O + sunlight= 6O2 + C6(H2O)6 + 6 H2O
3"Windfall," Written by Jay Farrar. Grain Elevator Music (BMI)/Ver Music (BMI)/Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. (BMI). Performed by Son Volt on City Folk Live II, WFUV, 1999; so much for getting off the corporate grid.