The hardest part of bread baking has got to be the milling of the wheat berries. We purchased a very nice grain mill a few years ago and originally had it bolted down to a butcher block. After about an hour of on and off cranking by hand.... you could start the bread baking process. There had to be an easier way, and after a handful of different designs had been tried I came up with this system. I found the exercise bike at the recycling center. The trickiest part was getting the gear reduction just right. Now I pedal for about 4-5 minutes to get my 6 cups of whole wheat flour.
The hopper is just the right size... 1 fill up gives me that 6 cups of flour. And when I'm done, I put on a home fabricated copper lid to keep the vermin out of my grain hopper.
I usually bake bread just once a week-2 loaves. I put one in the freezer till the first is gone. This week, since we'll be home for the holiday, I made one a cinnamon & sugar loaf. You just can't get bread like this at the grocery store. Pop a slice of this in the toaster and lay on some Cabot butter and....WOW!
