Crazy Weather, Broke Down, Home-Ground Flour
My goodness what a week of weather we’ve had. Hard rains and floods with water flowing in places we’ve never seen before. Lots of mud and high winds. Then sunny skies and beautiful sunsets. Followed by 3-4 inches of snow and cold.
By the way it’s Amy here talking to you today. I headed to Knoxville on Monday with meat orders to deliver. A couple hours into the trip however, I was stranded on the side of the road with the Suburban quitting on me. After about an hour I slowly made it to an exit in Greeneville where my sweet dad drove up from Knoxville to pick up me and the coolers of meat. Big shout out to all the Knoxville folks who were so kind and gracious with the later delivery. Will drove down that evening with a truck and trailer to haul me and the suburban home, dropping the suburban off at the shop on the way back. We made it home safe and sound around 2 AM. I am so thankful for a husband and a dad who saved the day!
Tuesday Will worked on fixing the driveways on the farm that were washed away with the heavy rains after feeding lots and lots of hay to the cows. Last week Will got a new battery for the tractor. About three days later, he went to feed and it wouldn’t start again. He’s thinking it’s the alternator.
Will’s brother has a horse who is due with to foal soon, so Hallie has been checking for the new baby multiple times a day. She’s horse crazy and can’t wait on this little one to arrive.
Last night Will and I made meat deliveries to Bristol and Kingsport. We’re thankful for all the dedicated customers coming out in the cold to get their meat. After the delivers we had a wonderful date night!
For months now I have been listening to podcasts and reading books about the benefits of grinding your own flour. A friend of ours has been grinding her own flour for about a year now, so I was picking her brain. Then she surprised us by buying us a flour mill. I am so excited to dive into this new adventure. We’ve already made sandwich bread, cinnamon bread, zucchini bread, hard tack (school project), and chocolate chip cookies with our fresh ground flour.
As the primary person who purchases groceries and cooks for my family, I am trying my best to eliminate overly processed foods in our regular diets. The more we can pronounce the ingredients the better. The more we know exactly how our food is made and the fresher our ingredients, the more nutritious it is for my family.
I’m not trying to talk to you into grinding your own flour (I’m only two weeks in), but this has rekindled my excitement for being in the kitchen in hopes to provide us with healthier baked goods.
Will gives me a hard time for typically having 3-4 different books going at once. Instead of multiple novels, lately I’ve been soaking up multiple bread books. I’ve learned a lot about flour from The Essentials of Home-Ground Flour Book by Sue Becker. Reading about the history of white flour has been eye opening.
What happens to flour once it’s ground? To produce white flour, "they remove the bran and germ portions of the grain (which contain most of the flavor and nutritional components).” If those are not removed, the flour would spoil quickly. In order to make the flour shelf stable the nutrients are stripped out first. Then most flour is bleached with chemicals to make it last longer.
The idea of milling your flour at home may seem unnecessary, “After all, we no longer live in the 1800s, when grinding flour and making bread were everyday necessities. We live in a world where food is prepared for us. We may not realize, however, that for nearly 100 years, the nutritional benefits and flavor of freshly milled flour have been sacrificed for convenience, and that the easiest and most economical and nutritious alternative to this devitalized flour is to grind your own at home.”
“These days many people live fast-paced, stressful lives, and they are constantly being offered commercially processed imitation food that is devoid of nutrients, but loaded with calories… Whole grains contain virtually every nutritional component that is vital to health and that will keep you energized and satisfy your appetite. Whole grains contain nearly 90% of all the vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates and fats that our bodies need. Wheat alone has 20 of the 44 nutrients considered essential to sustain human life.”
Listening to “Sue’s Healthy Minutes” Bread Beckers podcast, she interviews people who are gluten intolerant, but find they are able to eat freshly ground whole grain. And others who suffered from autoimmune disorders and have been healed by making the switch to home-ground flour.
I’ve never been one to have many hobbies, but I’m excited about this new endeavor.