Making Meal and Flour

Or DIY Survival in a Disaster

Coronavirus comes along and everyone goes nuts. I went to the grocery store in the morning and before the store was even open. There was a line to get in the store that was so long it went around the block. Chances were I would die of old age before I would get anything I wanted or needed. So off to the country boy’s secret supplier of everything you might need in a disaster, THE FEED MILL.

Feed mills sell the same things your local grocery store sells, only raw and in bulk at 1/10th the cost of your local grocery store. You can buy by the ton, or by the 50 lb bag many of the same things you use in the home from iodized salt, to powdered milk, and cereal grains.

For cereal grains I recommend you buy cleaned whole grains of, wheat, hulled oats, hulled barley, corn, millet seeds, striped sunflower, and flax seed. You can even get shelled peanuts from a feed mill and make homemade peanut butter.

In this Instructable I will be using Cleaned Flax Seed, Cleaned White Millet, and Whole Corn, and explain to you how to clean and make meal or flour out of these grains.

Any and all of these of these implements can be used for this Instructable

Tarp

Screens with different sizes of holes.

Colanders with different sizes of holes.

Sieve with different sizes of holes.

Coffee

Grinder

Blender

Food Processor

Meat Grinder

Mortar and Pestle

Hand Mill

The reason I recommend cleaned whole grains is, whole grains like the bag of whole corn will have chaff, chunks of cob, cracked corn, and by-crop, mixed in with the whole corn. Side by side you can see some of the difference in the cleaned whole corn and the whole corn. Uncleaned grains will contain wild seeds like wild mustard, weed seeds, rotation crops, and ground cover crops seeds in it.

In short you are not 100% sure what you have unless it is cleaned whole grain.

The cleaned whole corn you get from the feed mill is the same corn you get corn oil, corn starch, corn meal, and corn flour from. If you can’t get cleaned grains or you just want to save a dollar, you can clean the grains yourself however you can loose some of your bag weight. All you need is a breezy day or a fan, a clean tarp or floor, and screens or colanders with with different sizes of holes.

This is the way people have been cleaning grain for thousands of years. On a breezy day, lay a tarp on the ground and throw the grain in the air. The grain, the cracked grain, and the by-crop falls onto the tarp as the chaff is blown away with the wind. Now you can see some of the by-crop.

Using a screen or a colander with holes slightly smaller than the whole grain filter out the cracked grain and by-crop by swishing the grain around in the colander. Now you have cleaned grain and a byproduct called screenings, in the screenings you can see more of the of cracked grain and by-crop.

Screenings are not useless; impossible to just screen out the by-crop you can still feed screenings to your livestock or birds. I picked out the by-crop from 1/4 of a cup of cracked corn and came out with red millet, white millet, a large grass seed of some kind, wild flower seeds, and a few seeds I have no idea what they are.

I am not going to do corn meal or corn flower recipes since there are far too many you can download online. I am going to do flax seed and millet seed recipes of my own.

All of these appliances can be used to make ground grains and or flour. The coffee grinder can make small batches of ground meal or flower, the blender or a food processor can make larger batches of ground meal or flower, the meat grinder with a fine mincing plate can make ground meal, the mortar and pestle can make ground meal and flower, and last my hand mill, made to make ground meal and flour.

My favorites are the mortar and pestle and the hand mill, although they are more work than the electric appliances, both of them work in a blackout and both of them make ground meal and flower.

The flax seed you get from a feed mill is the same flax seed you buy in a health food store and is used to make flax oil. From my local health food store or grocery store flax seed cost as much as $8.oo a pound. From my local feed mill a 5 pound bag of cleaned flax seed cost me $4.99, that is a savings of $35.01, and enough flax seed to last a year.

HOW MUCH FLAXSEED IS SAFE TO EAT? While flax seeds offer plenty of health benefits, they also contain a moderate amount of a compound called cyanogenic glucosides. Cyanogenic glycosides is a chemical present in foods that release hydrogen cyanide when chewed or digested. These glucosides occur naturally in plant seeds like almonds, cashews, fruit seeds or stones, lima beans, soy, and spinach. So how much flax seed is safe to consume? I’m sure the recommendations vary from source to source, however Health Canada recommends a daily intake of 40 grams (5 tbsp or 1/8 of a cup.) of milled flax seed.

At 1/8th of a cup you cannot live on flax seed alone.

Whole flax seeds are not easily digested, so they they have to be ground up before you eat them. This can be done in a small coffee grinder, spice mill, or even a mortar and pestle. Only grind what you need, because ground flax seed meal spoils quickly.

Fax seed, flax seed meal, and flax seed oil, are all light sensitive and can degrade with exposure to light, so store in opaque containers or dark places. Flax seed oil stores best refrigerated or frozen.Thankfully, Whole flax seeds can keep at room temperature for up to a year. When they are ground, the flax seed meal should be used as soon as possible.

My wife’s favorite implement for grinding flax seed is a coffee grinder. Since she only wants to grind small amounts and use them right away this makes sense.

Flax seed can be used to replace eggs in a recipe and it is very easy to make.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon ground flax seed

3 tablespoons water, (45ml)

Instructions

Combine ground flax seed with water in a small bowl.

Allow the mixture to sit for 5 to 10 minutes before using. The consistency should be thick and viscous.

Use immediately in the recipe you are replacing the eggs in.

Cleaned millet is the same grain you get in gluten free bajri or bajra flour. And like flax seed millet is 1/10th the cost at the feed mill than the health food store or grocery store. Millet is used in and thought of as birdseed in North America, however it is a main staple in parts of Europe, Asia, and India. Millet seed comes in white, red, yellow, or gray.

I used my hand mill grind millet into meal for porridge and flour.

Gluten free vegan porridge made out of millet meal, (cracked or ground millet), is a very nice nutty flavored porridge. You can run the whole cleaned millet through a coffee grinder, or a blender for a few pulses to create a mixture of cracked grain and flour. I like to use my hand mill and cook this breakfast porridge in my microwave.

I like the millet porridge I make with a sprinkle of ground flax seed and Maple syrup on top. This is a very easy dish to make.

Ready in 25 to 30 minutes.

Ingredients

2 tsp coconut oil.

1 cup uncooked ground millet

3 cups boiling water, extra as needed.

1/8 tsp salt.

Ground Flax Seed and Maple syrup, for topping or the topping of your choice.

Supplies

Skillet

Spatula

Microwave Oven

2 Quart Microwave Safe Bowl with a Cover.

Grinder of your choice.

Measuring Cup

Directions

Stirring the ground millet is necessary the millet can stick to the microwave safe bowl as it cooks.

1. Pulsing in short bursts using the appliance of your choice, grind the millet to the consistency of half grains and flour.

2. Put water on to boil with enough time to add it to a microwave safe bowl at the same time you add the toasted millet. With my kettle about 2 minutes after I started to toast my ground millet.

3. Heat a small skillet or pan over medium heat, add the coconut oil and the ground millet.

4. Stir in the millet and lightly toast for 4 or 5 minutes until lightly brown, you should smell a nice nutty sent when it is ready. Be careful not to let the ground millet burn.

5. Place the toasted millet in a microwave safe bowl.

6. Add the salt and boiling water. The toasted ground millet should sizzle as you add the water.

7. Cover the bowl and place it in a microwave on high for 10 minutes.

8. Stir the millet and check its consistency, add hot water if needed cover and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

9. Stir the millet and check its consistency, add hot water if needed cover and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

10. By this time the grains should be soft and look like porridge or grits, the porridge ready to serve.

In my microwave the porridge was ready in 20 minutes, however not all microwave ovens are the same, so if the porridge is not ready, stir the millet, add hot water if needed cover and microwave on high for another 5 more minutes.

I wanted to make vegan gluten free hard tack with the millet flour, unfortunately my oven element blew up again so I opted to take a basic flatbread recipe and make it with millet flour. Flatbread can be made on the stove top, electric grill, or over an open fire. I used my hand mill however you can use a blender, food processor, or mortar and pestle to make the flour.

Ingredients

2 cups millet flour plus a little extra for dusting

2/3 cup water

1 flax seed egg (See Flax Seed Egg Recipe)

1/2 tsp salt

Coconut oil

Supplies

Rolling Pin

Skillet

Spatula

2 Quart Bowl

Grinder of your choice.

Measuring Cup

Instructions

1. Pulsing in short bursts using the appliance of your choice, grind the millet to the consistency of flour.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together 2 cups of the millet flour and salt.

3. Add the water, flax seed egg, and mix with a spoon until it forms a smooth dough.

4. Divide the dough into six equal parts.

5. Roll each piece of dough between your palms forming a ball and then press the ball between your palms to flatten them into a disc shape.

6. Dust the rolling surface with millet flour.

7. Take one disc of dough and dust both sides with millet flour.

8. Roll the disk out to about a 6 inches in diameter. Add more flour as needed.

9. Heat a 12 inch skillet over medium heat. If using a non stick skillet, coat the skillet lightly with oil.

10. After a minute, the flatbread will have a few bubbles and start to brown, flip the flatbread over.

11. When the flat bread is evenly cooked on both sides, remove it from the pan and toast it directly over an open flame for about 20 to 30 seconds. Make sure to move the flat bread around to avoid burning.

12. Transfer to a platter and brush with coconut oil and serve Hot or cold.

No Toilet Paper!!!!! Time for everyone to make a portable bidet.

WARNING THE BIDET FREZZES IN THE COLD OF WINTER, so if you use an outhouse bring it in from the cold. You can get a pump up sprayer from a hardware, garden supplier, or a feed mill. BUY NEW, used sprayers could have chemical residue in them you wouldn’t want on your Woho. Just take off the tip off the sprayer, heat the wand in hot water and bend for better aim. Fill it with water, pump it up, and you are ready to go.

Country boys can survive and here is a list of survival supplies from a feed mill. To find them all you will need to look in Beef Supplies, Dairy Supplies, Swine Supplies, Equine Supplies, Poultry, and Bird Seed. Some feed mills even carry cat food and dog food.

Cereal Grains, everything from wheat to peanuts and bird seed.

Molasses, (Sweetener) DO NOT GET MINERAL ADDED MOLASSES

Milk Chow is (Powdered Milk)

Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda)

Feed Mixing Salt (Iodized Salt, same as table salt.)

10% Vinegar

Penicillin

Bag Balm disinfectant udder cream. (Skin Cream)

Disinfectant wipes, Udder Wipes For the routine cleansing and disinfection of the udder and teats of cows prior to milking.

Dry Udder Wipes (Paper Towels)