Customer Reviews

Country Living Hand Grain Mill

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The country living grain mill is simply the best. It's solidly built to last a lifetime and easy to use. You really can't appreciate this mill until you try a cheaper one. It seems a little pricy, but you get what you pay for. If you are serious about grinding your own wheat (beans, corn etc) don't waste your time and money on anything less. You will either be discouraged and quit or you will eventually upgrade to a nicer mill like this one.

I bought mine about a year ago because I made the mistake of grinding my own wheat to make bread. I had a cheaper (but still quite serviceable) mill Hand Grain Mill for beer making. The difference in flavor and texture of fresh ground wheat flour is profound. It hooked me immediately and I have never gone back. The trouble is, grinding wheat flour by hand can be a soul destroying task. My next purchase was an electric mill. BlendTec Kitchen Mill - Grain and Flour Mill. It worked as advertised, but it was LOUD and cleanup was a real chore.

I finally broke down and bought the country living mill and motorized it using a belt drive and electric motor. It works perfectly fine without the motor, but I am very lazy. If you want to hand crank it, an extension bar for the hand crank is a nice addition that will make the job almost effortless.

This is a genuine flour mill that produces excellent fine flour in a single pass...or you can open it up to make a courser meal or a cracked grain. It works with any non-oily seeds and would probably serve for oil seeds if you were patient and cleaned the working parts frequently. It has very large steel plates that make short work of turning wheat into flour. You have to try it to really feel the difference, but I love mine and would buy another if mine were lost.

I highly recommend this product whether you want to run it by hand, by bicycle or by motor. As far as I am concerned, it's the best hand mill available anywhere.

I bought my Country Living grain mill about a week ago. After thinking that I didn't need a costly mill to do what people have done for millennia, I realized that there has been profound progress in simple technologies. That's not to suggest that this mill is easy, that it will crank itself (although it will crank itself if you give it a motor), but the quality output versus frustration and difficulty input ratio is awesomely enhanced.

I appreciate the sense of sturdiness in this mill. Some things are merely heavy and somehow still manage to seem flimsy. This mill is fairly heavy, but the sense of sturdiness exuding from it belies its weight. However, the weight really matters little, because you're not going to be packing it around. The elegant lines and beautiful simplicity of this mill belong as a fixture in the kitchen, bolted securely to the counter.

I made some bread yesterday. Sprinkled in with the wheat in the mill's hopper, I added some dried rosemary and caraway seed. The resulting flour showed no specks of these spices, but the aroma was incredible. For bread I prefer a grind that is slightly more gritty than this mill will provide at its finest setting, so I backed it off a bit toward the course side.

I am planning on motorizing my mill, but there's one thing you should be aware of on this matter. The company specifies that the lifetime warranty is void if the mill is motorized by any means other than the Country Living motorization kit, which costs about as much as the mill itself. Since the warranty was one factor in my decision to buy this mill, I will have to deliberate on this for a while. However, the quality of construction and availability of spare parts such as bearings and plates seems to negate the necessity of a warranty anyway. It's one of those rare products that can offer such a warranty in trust that it will never be cashed in. This mill will define durability for your great grandchildren.

I wish I had purchased this Mill sooner. It is built extremely well, works as good as it was built and arrived early.
Additionally, it's now part of my exercise regime. I hooked it up to my stationary bike with a pully and a band, and now, when I exercise I also grind grain. How cool is that.
My only regret is that I didn't buy this grinder sooner. It is not expensive when you consider the alternatives. Nothing else on the market like it.

I bought this mill after a 30 minute phone call with the man who makes them. Very pleasant gentleman, whos gentle saleman's ways will talk your ear off, but you won't mind. This is a great mill! Our milled wheat is the best I've seen anywhere. The bread we made had the best texture I've ever eaten.

BUT...

This is not a mill you keep sitting around your kitchen, unless you live on a farm and have a closet to store it in. It is big and cast iron. Ain't nothing going to break on it. Don't worry about the warranty, your grandchildren will be fighting over it in 2090. I knew it would be heavy duty, but I was surprised how heavy that duty was. It comes with no base, so my son and I crafted a base that we thought would work well in the kitchen. We even glue rubber on the bottom in hope that it wouldn't slide. Not good enough. Even with clamps, it wanted to slide, which my wife wasn't very happy to see happen on Corian counters. Fortunately the rubber prevented scratches. This mill needs to be mounted PERMANENTLY on the surface where you grind; bolted to the table. If you keep it in the garage, keep it covered. We've had to clean it out by taking it apart (very simple, by the way) after letting it sit in the laundry room a couple of months without a cover. Gross mold isn't tasty.

Next, unless you buy the motorized kit, be prepared for a workout. Remember your physics when considering the extension arm. Yes, the arm gives you more leverage, requiring less strength. However, your work is the same. Half the force, but twice the radius of the circle. Remember that formula, C = 2*R*pi. You're cranking that lighter force over a much larger distance. I found it easier without the arm, once I got the momentum going. However, my children under 12 years of age could not grind very much without the arm; too much strength required.

We ground 5 cups of flour (3 cups of wheat kernals) in about 20 minutes trading off the chore. I did most of the work. However on days when I was at work and the children and wife were milling, it took 45 minutes. So guess what I looking to invest in - the motor kit. Too hard for just the wife in children. Yes, the survivalist inside of me rebels. But, the power grid isn't gone yet. Is it worth it -- yes. But consider where and how you are going to use it before you purchase. Know where you are going to mount it, store it and grind it.

Hope this helps.

I purchased this mill as as an emergency preparedness measure. I do have an electric mil but it can create something of a mess by casting some of the flour into the air. This mill does not have that problem. When it comes to mounting this mill all you really need is a couple of c-clamps. Nothing fancy, just functional.

Built a good heavy table to mount it to, mounted it, and started making corn meal from some old time white corn I have acquired the seed to. Works as advertised. Some effort required if you're going to grind it by hand.

Very sturdy mill which will last a lifetime! Very pleased with it. Highly recommended and worth every penny.

This is a great flour mill. It grinds the flour very fine which I really like or you can loosen it and it will be coarser. It is rather hard to turn the handle so my husband put a motor on the mill.
This works great and I can get enough flour to make a loaf of bread in a short time.

I did a lot of research and concluded that this is probably the best grain mill on the market. Unfortunately, it is top heavy and falls over unless it is bolted to a solid surface. There is no base included. I called the company and they suggested bolting it to my kitchen counter top (not going to happen) or to a heavy wooden table in my garage. Now I have to buy a heavy wooden table, too. I did not expect to have to grind grain in my dirty garage. They also included a sample of the grain ground in the mill to test it before shipping. Unfortunately, the bag leaked and there was flour all over everything in the box, including the paperwork. The metal wheel had a rust stain and the company promptly sent me a new one at no charge, which was great customer service. It will probably work out, but it may be a while before I get it set up for use (I got it 2 months ago).