How to Grind Wheat in an Electric Grain Mill

When we first started our homesteading journey back in 2011, our NutriMill grain mill was our first “big” purchase. I was so excited to have a tool to enable me to provide wholesome foods from fresh ground wheat for my family. Now, I just had to learn how to use it.

How to Grind Wheat in a Grain Mill

I first started out using modern day organic soft and hard white wheat. I used soft white for un-yeasted baked goods and biscuits and the hard white for yeasted baked goods and breads. I also enjoy baking with ancient grains like spelt, einkorn, and kamut.

Grinding your own wheat ensures that you are getting fresh flour that is still packed with nutrients. Flour loses its nutrients quickly and can actually go rancid in a short time period. Within 3 days of grinding up to 90% of all nutrients are gone! I typically grind just what I need for baking at that time. If I do have some extra, I store it in the freezer to help it stay fresh longer.

Let’s get started

First things first- I measure out my wheat berries. One cup of berries yields about one and a half cups of flour. I add the berries to the hopper on my grain mill.

Setting my grain mill speed

Now, I set my grain mill settings. This can vary depending on what type of wheat or grain you are grinding and what texture you desire. For the wheat berries that I’ve used and for the majority of baked goods I make, i prefer a very fine grind. To achieve this texture, I set my feed rate to very slow and my motor on high.

Grind the wheat berries

The grinding process is VERY noisy, and takes several minutes. The wheat berries will slowly go down until the hopper is empty.

Once the grain has completely fed through, I wait about fifteen seconds longer to be sure all of the wheat berries were ground. I turn the motor off and remove the bowl.

The grain mill bowl has a lid that twists off and has a rubber ring to keep it sealed. I like to make sure the ring has flour on it or else it can be difficult to remove the lid. It also has a small filter that I clean after each use.

Fresh milled flour

Now, I have yummy fresh ground flour to use in all sorts of delicious foods. I store any leftover flour in a large baggy in my freezer. I usually set it out to warm up for a couple of hours before use. Ice cold flour and oils or butter don’t mix very well. Ask me how I know.

Fresh milled whole wheat pancakes are one of my all time favorite foods! I seriously eat them almost every morning for breakfast….. with chocolate chips in them of course!

As a maintenance for my particular grain mill, I grind one to one and a half cups of rice through it every 4-6 weeks. This keeps it clean and working great! I’ve been using my mill since 2011 and haven’t had any major issues with it!

I hope this post shows you how simple grinding wheat is and encourages you to get started milling your own flour!