Hippy Banana

We have been hippy-ifying ourselves quite a bit recently. We recycle nearly everything. We compost our kitchen scraps and we garden extensively. We use cloth diapers. We however have taken a new step in our Hippy-tastic lifestyle. We now are proud owners of a wheat grinder.

A few years ago we had dinner with Aunt Elisabeth. We spoke about libraries, El Paso and grinding wheat. I thought grinding wheat sounded like a blast and a very interesting thing to do. Fast forward a while later, and we ran into Aunt Liz again. She proudly told us that she managed to secure two giant buckets of unopened wheat kernels. Awesome! Thanks! How do we grind it? Stone and pestle she joked. She recommended that we find someone with a wheat grinder and borrow theirs. I know of no one who owns a wheat grinder locally. So the wheat berries sat in our kitchen enjoying the pantry.



We recently bought a new washer - don't worry, we clothes line dry our clothes -a front loading washer with a sanitation cycle (to sanitize cloth diapers). At the time of purchase there was an Arizona Rebate program going on. It essentially was a cash for clunkers but for old inefficient washing machines. So we signed up for it, and three months later received a 200 dollar gift credit card. We used it to buy a wheat grinder.




We made bread using the ground wheat last night, however the outcome was awful as the bread did not rise. The end product was a cinder block, teeth chipping chuck of wheatastic inedible disappointment. I'll try again once I'm done mourning.


The other learned bit of knowledge: my arm is sore from grinding 2 cups of wheat. It is hard work. The appeal of an electric grinder is apparent. Plugging an electric grinder in and pressing "go" is certainly easier. On the bring side, grinding 2 cups of wheat will give me a 20 minute arm work out. Yes....20 minutes.