I use the grain mill attachment to my KitchenAid mixer. I only have used
it for relatively small quantities of hard and soft wheat, but I find that
one hopperful of each is plenty for the amount of baking I do. I think the
price is about $100.00 and you can get it from many sources. I have had
mine for about 9 months and use it about once per month. Cleaning it can
be tiresome, but I remember my mother cleaning her hand-cranked food
grinder when I was a kid, so the cleaning of the grain mill brings back
memories.
There is an excellent book about baking from home-grown grains that
includes a section on grain mills. But, I just cannot remember the title
or author. Can anyone help out (Lynda?)?
The traditional mills have stones that grind the grain, then there are
those that have metal grinders like the KitchenAid. One of the more higher
priced models uses impellers that split the grain by hurtling them through
a fast spinning gauntlet with ridges. Various purists have their favorite
methods. Some say that only stone ground will do, since metal raises the
temperature of the wheat, thus pre-processing it, while others claim that
any amount of grinding is unacceptable when compared to the impellers.
I'm curious what others might think.