It's been a while since my post on selecting a hand grain mill. I've had to wait on Amazon's
Super-Slow Super Saver shipping. Then one of the vagaries of rural life occurred. It rained cats and dogs so the Post Office couldn't deliver my package. Why would that matter? Our mail is delivered in a 4x4 pickup and all packages have to go in the bed of the truck. Rain = Emily has to make a drive into town to pick up the package at the Post Office. Bet you city folk never had to deal with that! ;)
After these trials and tribulations, I finally was able to put my grain mill to use.
Which grain mill did I pick?
After weighing the pros and cons of the various options, I decided to buy the
Wonder Junior Deluxe Hand Grain Mill. 
Why I chose the Wonder Mill:
I immediately ruled out El Cheapo grain mills like the Victorio. I want to be able to grind fine flour with relative ease, which is pretty much impossible with those sorts of mills.
I also decided against higher end mills like the Diamant and Country Living Grain Mill. They have glowing reviews, but they each had a few features that I didn't like. One of those features would be the price! I did seriously consider getting the Country Living mill since you can buy a motorization kit. Together, the mill and motorization kit would run $745! It's much cheaper just to buy two mills.
That left mid-priced mills like the Lehman's Best and Wonder Mill Junior Deluxe. They had a lot going for them. Both had great reviews but I ended up choosing the Wonder Mill. Now that I've tried it, here's my review.
What I liked:
- Solid metal construction. There's nothing plastic except the hand grip on the handle. It is very sturdy.
- It comes with both stone milling heads and stainless steel burrs. The stone heads are for dry things like wheat and oats and the burrs work for oily nuts and seeds.
- It has a solid clamp to attach the mill to the counter. I was very impressed with how solid and still it remained no matter who was doing the grinding.
What I don't like:
- It takes a lot of shoulder power. I have a bum shoulder and it was really irritated by the motion.
- It takes FOREVER to grind fine flour. I put one cup of hard white wheat into the capacious hopper and was STILL grinding it 45 minutes later. Granted, I had a lot of "help" from children and took time to make adjustments to the grind. I had read reviews that said it took people 5 minutes to grind a cup of wheat, so I think I'm doing something wrong. Maybe I'll try grinding it coarsely first and then putting it back through the mill.
 |
| What I got after 30 minutes of grinding. I have some fine-tuning to do. |
An important note:
- The instruction manual states that first you need to process about 1 lb of grain with the stone milling heads and discard that flour. You have to wear down the stone a bit so that you won't get grit in your flour.
- If you get a Wonder Mill Junior or similar hand mill, you want to open it up and and do that process NOW while grain is plentiful and you have free time on your hands.
I have to admit I am disappointed. I was looking forward to making a loaf of bread from freshly ground whole wheat today. That is so NOT happening. I'm going to do some more research and I'll report back if my review changes. I've also contacted the Wonder Mill company in case they can help. At any rate, I think an electric mill is in my future very soon!
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