I just love the smell of homemade bread. I also love the smiling faces of my children when they race to the kitchen for a warm slice. Treasured moments. More blessings from The Master.
I began grinding wheat and baking bread a couple of years ago. A friend of mine was hosting a "bread baking" night at her home to share the wonderful things she had learned about the health benefits of grinding her own grain for baking. I confess that as a homeschooling mom, what interested me most about the evening was the chance to socialize with other adults. I went into the evening with absolutely no intention of becoming a wheat-grinding-dough-kneading earth mother. Ahh, how God must have chuckled to Himself.
After I left, I couldn't stop thinking about it. My mind kept reciting all of the health benefits for my family. And I knew to the core that they were valid. It took a few weeks of wrestling -- half of that time with myself over the fact that I didn't have time to take on doing all of our baking from scratch. It took the rest of that time to convince my husband that spending $200 on a grain mill would not be a total waste of money.
Ultimately, we came away with a compromise of sorts. I make what I call cheater's bread. I use a bread machine. Not that I can't make bread the old fashioned way, I just find the machine to be more convenient for fitting the baking into our daily activities. (In my defense, I bought the bread machine used online). And although frugality was not an issue we thought about at that time, baking my own bread is the least expensive way to get the best possible product for my family. We reap the benefits of wholesome ingredients and no preservatives, it's more filling than store-bought bread, and it tastes wonderful!
As my idea of frugal living is to live the best possible life at the lowest possible cost, making our bread meets that standard. And the $200 grain mill? It earned it's keep the first year -- when we stopped buying 2 loaves of bread @ $4/week. My favorite supplier for grain and supplies can be found at:
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