Mill vs Tiller

Wow! Another week is close to being over!  It seems that one minute time is just dragging by and yet when I turn around all the sudden another week has zipped by.  I still haven't figured out just when time started doing that. I mean I can remember as a kid everything seemed to take forever to "get to".  It was always "One day when I grow up I'm going to <fill in the blank>"  Or thinking that an eternity had passed waiting for Christmas morning.  These days Christmas is here before the Thanksgiving turkey gone. Do you ever wish that you could just go back and feel as if the first day of summer would never get here?  

    Anyway.... Mrs M bought herself the kitchen mixer that she has been drooling over for quite awhile now. It's one of those Viking Mixers. Top of the line. Cadillac of the mixer families.  The thing is a real workhorse and I'm happy for her.  Actually I am happy for me too! You will never guess what happened to the old mixer... oh wait..,I guess you can now!   LOL 

     Yep, she was kind enough to give me her Kenwood Chef Major.  Is that awesome or what??  It's an older mixer with absolutely NOTHING wrong with it except some of the paint is peeling off the base.  600 watts of pure mixing power.  It makes kneading bread child's play.  It also has some very cool attachments.  There is a meat grinder and sausage stuffer. So now I can add some more things to my list of want to do's. 
    Oh there is also a pasta maker. I've been wanting to learn to make pasta for ages.  I hear folks talk about how easy it is but I've always been a little worried about getting it right.  No more excuses for that anymore either.  Hog Heaven Baby!  Of course I'm going to have to wait until we get moved to do most of this stuff but hey... the way time is flying by that's just right around the corner, right?


All of this kind of brings me to the next thing I have been thinking about.  I have been wanting a grain mill for years now. I really want to be able to grind my own flour and cornmeal. Not so much because it's so much healthier for you (although it is) but because it is cheaper err.. less expensive to buy grain's and make your own.  Another thing to consider is that storing wheat is a much better alternative to long term storage than flour is. The shelf life of flour is pretty short.  A year or so is about as good as it gets before the flour goes rancid. You can store wheat for 30 years or more. Not that I plan on storing it that long but it's nice to know it won't go bad in just a year or so.


I've talked to lots and lots of folks, trying to get as much information from them all as I can about grain mills.  I've weighed out the pro's and con's of Electric vs Manual ones.  I've done all sorts of studying different mills and I finally picked the GrainMaker Mill.  There is some good information on different type's of grain mills under the testimonial section.  I thought it was pretty well written and seems to be well researched to. So if you have been wondering about the differences in Manual Mills check out the link  "Grain Mill Comparisons".  


I found out that they have a lay-a-way program.  That would help ease some of the pain of  spending over $4oo.oo. The problem that I ran into was that the GrainMaker is soon going up on their prices.From what I was told, the new price is going to be close to double what it is now. So I had to make a decision pretty quickly or I won't be able to take advantage of it.  So I gathered up all my information and had a talk with Mars.

Well it turns out he had something he wanted me to think about as well.  He want's to buy a tiller. Since one of the big things we are planning  on doing when we find "our land" is to garden, we are really going to need one. The garden we want to have just can't really be turned by hand every year.  Well... I suppose it could but .... what a lot of work.  He has been looking on Craigslist for a used one since tillers are not cheap! So after a little discussion we decided that instead of the grain mill that the tiller would be the better purchase for now.  Sometimes you just have to decide what is more important in the scheme of things.

And so now... back to the Kenwood Mixer. It seems that they make a grain mill attachment for it.  (You didn't really think I would just give up on a grain mill that easily did you?)  The only problem is that it looks like one will be hard to find. They stopped making the mixer a few years ago but I have found some places that still sell attachments and spare parts. The kicker is.... they sell them in the UK and don't ship to the states. 

The Kenwood used to be made in the UK. Then Rival started making them for a couple of years here. Then they quit making them at all. Something to do with the quality really going down after they moved here.  Anyway.... I figure if I can find the grain attachment I will just buy one of them.  It would sure be alot less expensive even though it won't be a Manual Mill.  So if anyone of you guys know where I might be able to find one I would sure appreciate it if you could let me know. Things will work out the way they are supposed to, right? 
                    ~~~  Hey ... I'm Just Sayin' ... ~~~