Flour Making Time

Last fall I planted a small patch of wheat, and this summer Danny helped me harvest it and Brian helped me thresh and winnow our first batch of it. This fall I plan to plant more wheat, as well as oats, barley, and rye. All three will be ready for harvest early next summer.
In the meantime, we have our wheat, and in order to turn it into whole wheat flour we invested in this here GrainMaker grain mill. It comes with a handle that attaches to the big flywheel on the back. You dump the grain in the top, start cranking, and flour comes out the front. The big shiny knob on the front allows us to adjust the fineness of the flour.
Our initial attempts at grinding were not good. It's a true test of stamina to turn the crank long enough to produce a usable amount of flour. After Brian and I took turns cranking this beast for an hour we were both worn out and had only made about 3 cups of flour; a combination of whole wheat, brown rice, and oats, to be exact. I decided right then and there that this thing would be motorized.After a brief search on eBay I scored a new 1/2 hp electric motor. A trip to the local farm store provided a 1.5" pulley and a v-belt. After a few weekends in the shop I had a stand for the mill with the motor mounted in the lower part of the stand. Now for the test!
I loaded up the hopper with more of our home-grown wheat, and flipped the switch. What a difference! Flour was now flying out the front, and I had a cup of flour in under a minute. Here's an action photo:Next I tried some brown rice, and then some steel-cut oats, with the same result: 1 cup of flour in about 1 minute. Remember, the same amount of flour by hand took a grueling one hour! Hooray, electricity!
The beauty of the grain mill is that we can make just as much flour as we need when we need it, which means it will always taste fresher. Whole grains stored in the freezer will stay good almost indefinitely. Also, it allows us to make whatever types of flour we want. Even if we buy the grain, it's far less expensive than buying flour. For example, at Costco we buy organic brown rice for $1/lb, which means we can have organic brown rice flour for $1/lb, which is far cheaper than any source I've seen online. Our whole wheat flour (organic, of course!) is basically free, since the wheat seed I planted was leftover from a 50lb sack I bought for chicken feed. Some of this year's wheat harvest will be planted for next year's crop, at a cost of $0 (okay, maybe a buck for gas for the roto-tiller). This year I let some of our sweet corn stay in the garden to mature, and once it's dry I'll try grinding it for corn meal. Normally, sweet corn isn't used for flour, but I read that it works well as long as you make sure it's completely dry before grinding it.
Here's a picture of our breakfast; wheat, oat, and rice pancakes. Yummy!