Wheat is Flour: Grind it Fresh

It’s easy to make whole wheat flour by grinding the entire grain – bran, germ and endosperm – into a fine meal. All you need is a few cups of wheat berries and a simple hand-powered kitchen grain grinder. Clamp it to a worktable, and invite a group of children to become millers. They’ll all beg to go first, and the whole process will build their enthusiasm for baking and eating whole wheat bread.

Hand milling wheat with a classroom of children can turn into a great team effort with many educational benefits in addition to producing fresh flour. As each turn of the grinder adds to the growing mound of flour, it also provides good physical exercise and a chance for young learners to practice counting skills. Watch them all line up behind the mill and approach the job of doing ten turns of the handle with different degrees of speed and delight. After each young miller has a turn at the handle, he or she moves to the position of care-taking the bowl to make sure the flour doesn’t spill over. All the while, the participants get to smell and taste the freshly ground wheat as it comes out of the mill. Once the bowl is filled, make it into a 100% whole wheat loaf of bread. Try setting some aside and sifting out the bran and germ to see how white flour is produced.

155