Grinding Corn into Cornmeal

Well, with Thanksgiving coming up, we have the turkey taken care of.  But we started thinking about the side dishes and began to plan the menu. Don't you just love cornbread dressing?  I mean some delicious cornbread dressing with gravy on top?  Yeah, me too.  We got out some non-GMO corn that Tricia bought in bulk. Before you make cornbread dressing, you've got to make cornbread.  Before you make cornbread, you've got to make cornmeal. Let's make some cornmeal.

Non-GMO corn from Azure Standard

We got out our grain grinder, poured some corn in the hopper and started cranking.

The Daily Grind

Look at the cornmeal coming out and filling the Tupperware container.  We joked that it would have been much easier to bring our corn to Mingus Mill.  (Do a search on the blog if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

Freshly ground cornmeal

The next photo shows Benjamin cranking the cornmeal out like a champ.  You can see that we're halfway through the measuring cup and the container is quickly filling with cornmeal.  The drill is there in case we get lazy.  I can take off the crank, attach a socket to the drill and sit on a stool and make cornmeal the easy way - letting the battery operated drill do the work!

The two plastic 'shoe boxes' in the picture below are something that I have to put a plug in for.  They are shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritan's Purse (Franklin Graham's organization) that sends toys, toothpaste, clothing, games, candy, or whatever you want to fill your boxes with to needy children all over the world.  As a homeschool project, Benjamin went shopping and picked out things to fill his boxes. It is a good thing and you know the ministry is a good one.  In addition to meeting kids' physical needs and giving them perhaps the only Christmas gift they'll receive, Samaritan's Purse gives them the Gospel.  If you haven't done so, look Operation Christmas Child up on the Internet and participate:  Samaritan's Purse. It is a worthy endeavor.  (You can see on the website that Uncle Si gets involved as well!)

When I got tired, ol Benjamin got in on the action

A Corny Ode to the Cornmeal Grinder

There was once a young man who was looking forlorn,
From his iPad he was torn,
He began diligently grinding corn,
Behold a corn-milling star was born!

Before too long, we've filled up the container with cornmeal and have enough to make cornbread!  We switch back and forth from left arm to right arm, from me to Benjamin to Tricia.  It is a real family effort.

Benjamin, Tricia and Kyle = The cornmeal mill!

We scoop it into a four cup measuring container...

And we use a funnel to put it all in a 2 pound cornmeal bag we saved from a previous purchase.

Our cornmeal is organic, but it's not blue.

Now we're ready to make cornbread so we can enjoy some delicious cornbread dressing with our turkeys next Thursday.