Grain grinders?

[ORChick]

I've been thinking about getting a grain grinder, and see that the Family Grain Mill has a decent review at Walton Feed, and also that it can be used either as a manual grinder, or powered by my KitchenAid. Does anyone here have any experience with this particular grinder? Please bear in mind that my family is small (just DH and myself) so it wouldn't be in constant use, and also that, when it comes to the actual (manual) grinding, it would be ME doing it, female, of a "certain age" (read "no longer young" ). I wouldn't need a high capacity machine, and don't want a very expensive one. Any comments? Thanks.

 

[Blackbird]

I'm not quite sure what the 'Family Grain Mill' is.. but we bought a grain grinder to grind corn for the chickens - no more buying cracked corn.

We hooked it up to a motor and belt so we don't have to do it manually, which worked, but after 50 pounds it got to be a little much, so the motor was the way to go.

I'm not much help, sorry :/

 

[freemotion]

Hey, Amos, unless you have bantams, your chickens can handle whole corn. Mine do, have for a couple of years. Three weeks to develop crop strength during the change-over.

I use my Vitamix to grind a lovely flour, but the set, new, with the dry blade for flour is $549......not cheap! We got it during a time when I had LOTS of horse work, and could sometimes come home with that amount after one long day (ok, don't be doing any math, I rarely had a day like that, and never worked more than one full day of horses per week..... ) We also use our anniversary as an excuse to buy such high-end but useful things, as a present to each other.

We use it almost every single day to make healthy shakes, because it can grind a large carrot into bits so tiny, the book that comes with it says the cells even get chopped up! A typical grab-n-go lunch for me (I can drink it in the car) might be a handful each of frozen strawberries and grapes, a large carrot, a handful of spinach, a glop of yogurt, 4 raw egg yolks, and maybe some milk if it is too thick. This will keep me going for hours, and keeps me sharp on my teaching days.

So it is something to consider if you will use it for other things, too.

I am still looking for a small, inexpensive hand-cranked unit that will make thick rolled oats from whole oat groats. Maybe $100 or less. Anyone?

 

[Blackbird]

Its mainly for the younger chickens that can't get whole down.

 

[ORChick]

Hey, Amos, unless you have bantams, your chickens can handle whole corn. Mine do, have for a couple of years. Three weeks to develop crop strength during the change-over.

I use my Vitamix to grind a lovely flour, but the set, new, with the dry blade for flour is $549......not cheap! We got it during a time when I had LOTS of horse work, and could sometimes come home with that amount after one long day (ok, don't be doing any math, I rarely had a day like that, and never worked more than one full day of horses per week..... ) We also use our anniversary as an excuse to buy such high-end but useful things, as a present to each other.

We use it almost every single day to make healthy shakes, because it can grind a large carrot into bits so tiny, the book that comes with it says the cells even get chopped up! A typical grab-n-go lunch for me (I can drink it in the car) might be a handful each of frozen strawberries and grapes, a large carrot, a handful of spinach, a glop of yogurt, 4 raw egg yolks, and maybe some milk if it is too thick. This will keep me going for hours, and keeps me sharp on my teaching days.

So it is something to consider if you will use it for other things, too.

I am still looking for a small, inexpensive hand-cranked unit that will make thick rolled oats from whole oat groats. Maybe $100 or less. Anyone?

http://www.everythingkitchens.com/fgm.html

Free, this is the one I am looking at; not less than $100, but also not $500+. It also has an optional flaker attachment. I have a blender for my smoothies etc; the grinder would be just for grains, and, because it is only for the 2 of us, it doesn't need to be super efficient. I like the idea of non-electric, but not if it is so much work that I won't use it much. That is why I'm hoping that someone here might have personal knowledge of this particular grinder.

 

[big brown horse]

I like that one. But why do these things have to be so durn expensive??