# If you were caught with no grain grinder



## Guest (Mar 28, 2008)

Hypothetical situation.

Let's say you'll have a source of grain but no way to grind it. What would you do?

Primitive cultures tended to soak grain overnight to soften it so it would be easier to grind with a stone. But would there be a better way with modern materials probably available?


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

then eat it like rice. Not as fun as a fresh slab of bread....but it is food.


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## Nathan (Jun 8, 2006)

You could always sprout your wheat as explained at kurtsaxton.com


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## anniew (Dec 12, 2002)

use a pipe to smash the grains in a metal container...kinda like a mortar and pestle.


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## Ohio Rusty (Jan 18, 2008)

Lets step back to the 18th century for just a bit, when there were no ammenities of comfort, and everything was done from scratch, by hand. On the frontier, trees were chopped down, the logs pulled with horses and erected into cabins. Corn was planted with back breaking work in the ground around the tree stumps. Welcome to your new homesstead on the Ohio frontier !! Fall has arrived, you have brined venison in barrels and smoked and jerked a couple hundred pounds for the long winter ahead. You have 50 acres of corn on the stalk, but how did you grind it ??? 

The top of a tree stump was hollowed out into a deep, deep bowl. A grinder was carved that looked very much like a club or baseball bat. The corn was put into the stump bowl hole and the grinding club was raised and forcefully slammed down into the hole crushing the corn grains. After a bit, the corn was reduced to a fine meal, and the process started all over again with new corn. Sometimes a limber pole was inserted in the ground near your grinding stump and a rope attached to the top of the pole. The rope was then attached to your grinding club. When you smashed the corn kernals, the limber pole would pull your club back up for you, making the grinding work only half as hard as the limber pole acted as a spring. You only had to pull the club down. This type of grinding was done for hundreds of years, and was utilized for every kinds of grain - wheat, corn, barley, rye, acorn, etc.

This grinder didn't cost anything, and was easily at hand or easily made. The same can be done today with a stump and a good baseball bat. The hole in the stump is made by burning and scraping out the char until you have it as wide and as deep as you need it to be. Frontiersmen on longhunts didn't have the luxury of a grinding stump, so they placed their corn or coffee beans in a heavy sack and beat on the grain with the hammer end of a tomahawk until a fine meal consistency was achieved. Nature will supply all of our wants and needs in the worst of times if we have the knowledge and skill to utilize what nature gives us. Man made grinders are a great invention, but without all the gadgetry, you can still achieve your goals of grinding, baking and food harvesting. That is how your ancestors did it with no grinder.
Ohio Rusty ><>


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## countrymouse2b (Mar 13, 2008)

Cool! I was thinking mortar and pestle. Ohio Rusty's tree is a huge-o version of that LOL


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

There are several options. Ohio Rusty talked about one of the best. 

If possible I'd try to get or make a grinding stone and use one of the donkeys to make an old fashion grinding mill. That would not only grind my own, but I could grind on shares for others. I'm thinking 10% might be a good amount to charge for grinding. 

I could then piggyback a grinding business into a store to sell the extra flour to people who can't grow their own grains. I could barter flour for other items. In the long run finding a good way to grind grain could be a stepping stone to bigger and better things.


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## Explorer (Dec 2, 2003)

ladycat said:


> Hypothetical situation.
> 
> Let's say you'll have a source of grain but no way to grind it. What would you do?
> 
> *Primitive cultures tended to soak grain overnight to soften it so it would be easier to grind with a stone. *But would there be a better way with modern materials probably available?


I had never heard that before. I studied southwest archeology in college almost 50 years ago, so maybe new discoveries have been made.

The southwestern Indian used a piece of flat sandstone and a harder stone for the hand held grinder. Hand and knees operation with backbreaking labor. Female skeletons have been found with deformed toes from the many hours spent grinding. Grains were stored dry and then ground dry as a damp grain would clog the stones pores.


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## Guest (Mar 29, 2008)

Explorer said:


> I had never heard that before. I studied southwest archeology in college almost 50 years ago, so maybe new discoveries have been made.
> 
> The southwestern Indian used a piece of flat sandstone and a harder stone for the hand held grinder. Hand and knees operation with backbreaking labor. Female skeletons have been found with deformed toes from the many hours spent grinding. Grains were stored dry and then ground dry as a damp grain would clog the stones pores.


I'm sure many ground the grains dry. Southwest Indians probably didn't always have a lot of water to spare for "frivolous" uses.


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## Guest (Mar 29, 2008)

If I just couldn't do it any other way then the hominy block that Ohio Rusty describes is what I'd make. It's also called a samp mortar and several other names that don't come to mind right now. A sight of work to mill grain that way, but better than no way at all and better than the rock grit in your teeth that a metate produces.

.....Alan.


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## seedspreader (Oct 18, 2004)

There are way too many cars/gears/parts/etc. around for me to resort to trees, unless I was in the wilderness somewhere, but if I were in the wilderness somewhere, I probably won't have a bunch of grains with me.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

If you lived near me, you could boogy over here and I'd grind it for ya on shares.


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## Oldcountryboy (Feb 23, 2008)

Don't know which of my relatives made off with it, but my grandma (a full blood Cherokee) had a large rock that was U shaped in the middle and a hand rock that fit right inside the U channel. Supposedly it came all the way from Georgia on the Trail of Tears journey by her grandparents. I don't recall ever seeing her grind any wheat or corn with it but she made a dish that she called "Kenuchea". This was made out of crushed up hickory nuts that she used the two rocks for. So I can imagine it was probably used for grinding corn also in her younger days and her parents time here on earth.


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## Explorer (Dec 2, 2003)

That is what I sorta described above and as Alan points out they were called metate.

Metate's come in many different forms and variation which corresponds to different regions and time periods. Metates are still being used today to grind corn and other grains into meal or flour. A smaller stone, called a mano, is held in the hand and rubbed in a back and forth motion to do the grinding. Native cultures had strong culturally differentiated sex roles and it was the woman who spent hours each day preparing food for their families. 

One problem with stone-ground food is that it has little pieces of grit in it, which act as an abrasive. Many prehistoric skulls show evidence of teeth being worn down to the gumline. 

I have several metate's collected about fifty years ago when I was studying anthropology in New Mexico. The most severely worn has the bowl eroded down almost six inches and is fairly large. It probably was used over a lifetime by some Native woman. It is broken down the middle (the base is still almost 2" thick) which could be an indication of a death incident. It was found with a basalt mano.

The action of these devices is very similar to todays small stone grinder. So anything you can grind in a small stone mill could be ground using a metate and mono.


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## booklover (Jan 22, 2007)

Ohio Rusty said:


> The top of a tree stump was hollowed out into a deep, deep bowl. A grinder was carved that looked very much like a club or baseball bat. The corn was put into the stump bowl hole and the grinding club was raised and forcefully slammed down into the hole crushing the corn grains. After a bit, the corn was reduced to a fine meal, and the process started all over again with new corn.


My dd and I went to a day camp that taught how they did things in pioneer times. We used this method you described, then made corn bread in a dutch oven. It was so delicious. We churned the butter and everything. It was hard work, but really worth it. I'd hate to have to do it every day, though.


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## lorian (Sep 4, 2005)

I guess if you had an old fashioned coffee grinder around you could use that.
Laura Ingall's Wilder's family lived for 7 months on grain ground in a coffee grinder and soured to make a crude sour dough bread.


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## spiffydave (Mar 19, 2008)

Nathan said:


> You could always sprout your wheat as explained at kurtsaxton.com


That site's not working for me. Is that the correct URL? Interested in reading more.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

lorian said:


> I guess if you had an old fashioned coffee grinder around you could use that.
> Laura Ingall's Wilder's family lived for 7 months on grain ground in a coffee grinder and soured to make a crude sour dough bread.


I remember that from The Long Winter. Her future husband had his seed wheat behind a false wall in his house, and Pa Ingalls forced him to share some of it with people who were starving in town. That wheat was all that kept some people alive until trains could get through in the Spring.


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## Guest (Mar 29, 2008)

lorian said:


> I guess if you had an old fashioned coffee grinder around you could use that.


 That's already the plan. Have one.  I was just curious about alternatives and I was hoping some people would come up with good ideas to help other members. 

It's always good to talk these things out so we can all get solutions to our problems or get ideas for doing things better than the current plans allow for.


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## SquonkHunter (Feb 24, 2008)

Spiffydave- try this:

http://www.kurtsaxon.com/


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## Grace&Violets (Apr 4, 2007)

I've been making a sprouted manna bread that is made from sprouted wheat berries, grated carrots and raisins. While the berries are still very wet, you could take a masher and make it fairly easily. It just needs to be mashed to a paste. No yeast necessary, very filling and delicious. One major plus is that you don't even need an oven. On a hot day, put it outside for 4-6 hours and let it dry. That's it. With an oven, it's just 2 1/2 hours at 200 degrees. It can even be made with just wheat berries, but you could put anything you want it in. Grated apples, dates, berries, etc.


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## JGex (Dec 27, 2005)

Grace&Violets said:


> I've been making a sprouted manna bread that is made from sprouted wheat berries, grated carrots and raisins. While the berries are still very wet, you could take a masher and make it fairly easily. It just needs to be mashed to a paste. No yeast necessary, very filling and delicious. One major plus is that you don't even need an oven. On a hot day, put it outside for 4-6 hours and let it dry. That's it. With an oven, it's just 2 1/2 hours at 200 degrees. It can even be made with just wheat berries, but you could put anything you want it in. Grated apples, dates, berries, etc.


Heh, I was just about to post that sprouted grain is one of the most nutritionally complete foods and is used in many recipes in a raw food diet. Wheat berry salads with chopped veggies and seasoned to taste are easy to make and needs no appliances or grinding. Manna bread is another very healthy way to eat sprouted grains and a way to utilize your dried fruit stores. Other baked breads can also be made from a combination of mashed sprouted grains.

Healthy beverages can be made from fermented sprouted grains as Rejuvelac.

Crackers can be made from sprouted grains using soaked flax seed as the binding agent and simply drying the mix in batches flat.

There are healthier and easier ways to eat grains than just grinding them into flour....


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## pickapeppa (Jan 1, 2005)

I'd bring my grains to the historic grain mill in the next town. Two of my neighbors have horses. We could work out a deal if it came down to it. Otherwise, I'd probably eat something else, or cook it for a long, long time. We also have a huge concrete driveway that could somehow be put to use on this project. Oh, and thanks for the tree stump idea. We have six of those on the back property line, already chainsawed into that bowl shape.


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## Little House (Nov 18, 2007)

Grace&Violets said:


> I've been making a sprouted manna bread that is made from sprouted wheat berries, grated carrots and raisins. While the berries are still very wet, you could take a masher and make it fairly easily. It just needs to be mashed to a paste. No yeast necessary, very filling and delicious. One major plus is that you don't even need an oven. On a hot day, put it outside for 4-6 hours and let it dry. That's it. With an oven, it's just 2 1/2 hours at 200 degrees. It can even be made with just wheat berries, but you could put anything you want it in. Grated apples, dates, berries, etc.



Could you post the recipe? I make bread from sprouted wheat, and this sounds like another yummy use for my sprouted wheat.


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## virtualco (Feb 3, 2006)

While grinding my coffee beans for my morning pot I started thinking about using my electric coffee grinder to pre-grind my wheat berries. I don't know if this would work but my electric coffee grinder has an espresso setting which produces a very fine grind of coffee.

Anyone thought of this also?


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## Grace&Violets (Apr 4, 2007)

Little House said:


> Could you post the recipe? I make bread from sprouted wheat, and this sounds like another yummy use for my sprouted wheat.


Believe it or not, I pretty much posted the whole recipe in my OP. 

2 cups wheat berries
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup raisins

Sprout the wheat berries until the sprouts are 1/2-2/3". (1 1/2-2 days) Put in food processor until they become a paste. My food processor isn't that big, so it took 3 separate rounds in the processor for me. Put the wheat paste into a bowl, add grated carrots and raisins and mix well. I tried a spoon, but my hands worked best. Lightly spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray or maybe with a little oil. Form the mixture into 2 loaves on the cookie sheet. Bake at 200 degrees for 2 1/2 hours or put outside on a dry, hot day for 4-6 hours. Store it in the refrigerator or eat it the same day.

We like it best when we toast it in the toaster oven after it's baked, but DS (2) loves it plain. 

I've thought about trying it with grated apples, for a sweeter bread.


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## Little House (Nov 18, 2007)

Grace&Violets said:


> Believe it or not, I pretty much posted the whole recipe in my OP.
> 
> 2 cups wheat berries
> 1 cup grated carrots
> ...



Thanks, 
I'm going to try it.


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