Today may be the warmest morning we’ve had in a couple of weeks. It’s 50 degrees. The rising sun is broadcasting a hazy glow across the green and auburn trees. The birds are singing their good morning song and I am sitting on my back steps, wearing a red robe, drinking a cup of coffee, and thinking about freshly milled flour.

Now in my household I’ve been eating almost exclusively whole wheat bread since I was a teenager. I enjoy whole wheat bread. I’ve also been baking with almost exclusively whole wheat flour since my first daughter was born in 2023.   I was curious and excited when I learned there was a way to make the bread and baked goods I already loved more nutritious.

Sometime last year I heard about freshly milled flour in a podcast. At the time I was just really getting the hang of making whole wheat sourdough and though I was curious I did not want to add a level of complication to something I was already struggling with. Over the next year I kept hearing more and more about the benefit of freshly milled flour and how flour loses up to 90 percent of its nutrients within three days. I love the idea of whole, real, and nutrient dense food and wanted to start baking with freshly milled flour. I just couldn’t afford it yet.

I tend to operate on the good, better, best model when it comes to feeding my family. While baking from freshly milled flour might be the best thing to do, baking with whole wheat flour was still good. Whole wheat from the store was still naturally more nutritious than all purpose flour and less processed. When I became able to afford better I would get the bettrr option.

As we moved into this year I upgraded from regular whole wheat flour to organic whole wheat flour. We don’t do everything organic but I try to buy organic when I can. I also asked my mom for a grain mill attachment for my KitchenAid mixer for my birthday. I’m truly blessed that even at my age I still get birthday presents from my mom. She sent me the money to buy the grain mill but I ended up using it to pay bills.  It wasn’t until months later when I finally got my grain mill. I was so excited!  Now all I had to do was buy the wheat berries.

Wheat berries were $10 for 2.5 lbs. I was getting 5 lbs of flour for the same price . Now as with most things buying in bulk is cheaper. I could buy 15 pounds of berries for a similar price as 15 pounds of flour.  That meant however , paying 3 times more for flour one month than I usually do and I  had to wait until there was room in my food budget to do so.

Finally months after I got my grain mill I was able to afford to buy wheat berries without going over my monthly food budget.  I ordered my wheat berries feeling like a child on Christmas eve as I waited for it to arrive. It was worth the wait. My bread had so much flavor and texture. I used the same bread recipe as I usually do just adding a bit more milk and a little more butter.  I went on a baking/cooking spree, making pancakes, muffins and cookies using freshly milled flour.

What has been tricky though is working grinding the berries into my daily routine. Making bread from scratch is already a long process and grinding the berries fresh adds not only an extra step but also time to the process. What I started doing is grinding flour the night before I plan to bake. That way in the morning I can just get started. I also started keeping a cup of flour milled for quick things like feeding my starter or making gravy. I am still learning and figuring everything out but it has been a great experience so far.

Baking, cooking, homesteading, parenting, all these things are things you learn from doing. You hear what the advice is, you apply it and you see if it works for you. I talked a lot in this post about financial constraints. I did this because social media tends to paint a portrait of all or nothing. They say, if you are using this flour, this mixer, this technique, then you are doing it wrong. Sometimes the message is that in order to start cooking, baking, homesteading etc that you have to have these certain things but that’s not true. Today I wanted to show you real life. You learn things in steps. You buy things to make baking easier or more nutritious when you can afford it. It isn’t necessary to have a mixer, a grain mill or a Dutch oven to get started.  Just get started.