Grinding Spelt into Flour

Tricia orders Spelt in 25 pound sacks from Azure Standard, a co-op that we belong to and it gets delivered to our town.  Spelt is a very interesting grain.  It is an ancient form of wheat that was a staple back in the Bronze Age and medieval times.  I learned on various websites that because spelt requires less fertilizers than normal bread wheat, it has gained a resurgence since the organic movement picked up steam.

Spelt is also mentioned a couple of times in the Bible:

 "Take also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils and millet, and spelt and put them in one vessel…" Ezekiel 4:9

Isaiah 28:25-27

New King James Version (NKJV)

25 When he has leveled its surface,
Does he not sow the black cummin
And scatter the cummin,
Plant the wheat in rows,
The barley in the appointed place,
And the spelt in its place?

Pretty cool, huh?

25 lb sack of spelt

It looks very similar to normal wheat berries.

Spelt berries

It would be most difficult to make bread with spelt berries.  You must turn it into flour first.  So we got our hand-cranked grain mill and attached it to the counter top and put some spelt berries in the hopper.  Me, Benjamin, and Tricia alternated cranking the handle and filling the hopper with spelt berries.  We cranked...

First a little pile

And cranked...

Then a bigger one...

And cranked...  You know what?  Even if you aren't hungry for bread when you start milling the spelt berries into flour, by the time you're finished, you will have worked up an appetite.

In not too terribly long, we had 5 lbs of spelt flour that we poured into a bag.  We'll use it to bake bread, make pancakes, waffles and biscuits, and even make pasta with it!  

Yes, it is much easier to purchase flour at the store instead of doing all this work.  We live in a world where everything is convenient and immediate.  You can go down to the corner store and satisfy your appetite for most anything without expending much time or effort.  Not only is grinding your own flour good exercise, but it is a good reminder that honest work is a blessing and you really appreciate good, wholesome food a little more when you put in some effort to prepare it.