Greetings,

Fairly recently there were some postings about grain grinders and I
have since purchased a Country Living Mill and wanted to post some
observations/opinions.

The basic mill did a fine job of grinding wheat and rye out of the
box. While I could get a reasonably fine texture of flour with one
pass, I found it much easier to do it in two passes: very course, then
fine.

Two passes, with the first being very course, were needed to get corn
to work. By the way, corn must be dried until really brittle before
it will work well (and I just went to our farmers market, asked they
guy at the organic stand if he had any field corn, and he sold be as
much as I could carry for about $5...I then borrow a corn sheller and
dried enough to keep be busy for the winter).

My two main issues with the mill we 1. the chamber which grains are
carried through to the burrs (with the help of a narrow auger/spring)
was a pain to clear of the grains that the narrow auger didn't carry
through the grinding plates. Cleaing required either completely
inverting the mill (difficult if its locked down as it needs to be),
or taking off the outer grinding plate and inserting a long brush to
clear it out. 2. For fine grinding, especially in one pass, it could
be a bit of work turning the flywheel.

However, I now have installed a larger auger that effectively forces
all grains through the grinding plates (including corn)leaving little,
if anything, behind. I also added their "power bar" which extends the
effective radius of the flywheel for more leverage. It now kicks
serious butt, IMO.

My only quarrel at this point is that the larger auger should be
standard, but costs an extra $29 as it is now ($25 for the bar
extension, which is a nice addition).

Matt

matt s wrote:
Greetings,

snip
...I
have since purchased a Country Living Mill and wanted to post some
observations/opinions.

snip...I found it much easier to do it in two passes: very course, then
fine.

Thank you for this observation; I will try this. I have been using the
Country Living mill for about a month now.

snip...I now have installed a larger augersnip...
I also added their "power bar" snip... It now kicks
serious butt, IMO.

Funny, I came to the same conclusions, and ordered both the auger and
the power bar this morning, before I read this posting. But at least my
arms are stronger now!

I will have to try field corn, sounds interesting.

Thanks,

Heather
_amaryllisATyahooDOTcom