I know a lot of you MOMYS use the Whisper Mill. I recently have gotten it (4 mos or so) and I am having trouble with it. It stops running during a milling several times per week. It seems to clog with flour in the tube leading to the flour chamber and heats up and turns itself off.

I never had trouble with my last mill (may it rest in peace) that served me faithfully for about 12 years. Am I doing anything wrong or is my mill a dud? It is very hard to make bread, etc when my mill doesn't work most of the time. BTW, this is the second WM I have had in the last 4 months as the first one stopped working the first week I got it.

Sorry to hear of the problems with your Whisper Mill. I visited with a lady last week who was having similar problems. Seems she was washing out the lid, but not getting all of the flour out of the tube. After it dries... it turns into a crust and causes the milled flour to back up. To alleviate the problem she now taps the lid to free as much dry flour as possible... then again after it is dry. She was amazed at the ring of crusted flour that she found.

Also I've seen too many who are trying to mill more than the recommended 8 cups of wheat berries. When it's full it will quickly fill up the chamber and back up all the wheat. I'm sure you found quick service with the company... and actually my Distributor shared that in about 2500 machines she's sold... less than ten have needed to be repaired.

I have the Whisper Mill and it too recently clogged just like yours did. The problem we found out was the wheat evidently was damp from the humidity we had here in NE. So I put all the wheat I was going to use on cookie sheets to dry for a few days. I then went and used it again and it was fine. The wheat berries themselves were softer than normal.

I just bought a great little electric grain mill that cost about $60.  It's made by Regal and grinds 3 cups of flour at a time. They say you should let it rest for about 5 minutes after every 4 to 4 1/2 cups of flour. 

You can make a delicious whole wheat bread by hand, but it will be rather dense, as it is hard to fully knead whole wheat by hand. It will be delicious served hot for dinner, but not so good for sandwiches. I used half whole wheat/half white when I made it by hand in order to make it soft enough for sandwiches. A good kneading machine, like the Bosch, will make a 100% whole wheat bread so light you would not know it was all whole wheat! Kneaders cost a lot of money, but for a large family I think they are the best investment in the kitchen. I serve organic,100% whole grain breads everyday--toast for breadkfast, hot bread for dinner, and sandwiches for supper. I make 4 loaves every day--usually 5-6 days/week. My total grocery bill, counting my yearly purchases of grain, averages $77 a week and we feed 3 meals a day to at least 10 people, plus we have lots of company each week. My growing boys (one grew 14 inches this last year!!!) can snack on all the cheap bread they wish. It is a very healthy snack.  My kneader broke after 12 years of daily service, and my grocery bill went up $40 a week! (That's $160 a month!) Store bread is expensive and my kids needed several sandwiches to fill them up (which meant more sandwich fillings, also). I had to make much larger portions of other foods. Whole grain fills you up, and keeps you full! I figured a $400 machine would pay for itself in 10 weeks at my house! Not to mention all of the gifts that fresh bread can be used for! Or bartered for! I used to barter fresh bread for fresh eggs--until the lady started making her own bread! I sell my bread for $2.50 a loaf which is very cheap for a quality loaf in Southern California. My sis sells hers for $3.50 a loaf in rural Arkansas. ( Can you tell who is the smarter one?) I have more requests than I can fill and so does she.

There are several types of wheat berries. For yeast bread you will want a good quality hard wheat with a high gluten content. I prefer a hard red winter wheat, but some prefer a hard white, which has a lighter flavor more similar to white bread. To make stirred breads such as pancakes, cornbreads, banana breads, cookies, pastries, cakes, you can use a soft, low gluten wheat. This makes what is called pastry flour. I actually use my bread wheat for nearly everything, including cookies, pancakes and most cakes and we all love it. We sift and double sift to get the flour very fluffy. Soon after I got the kneader, I made so much bread that it was a pain to always buy flour. I learned that I could store wheat berries longer and easier than flour, which goes rancid fairly quickly. I bought a mill, and now I buy the berries once a year, saving me lots of time shopping.  I spend about $200 dollars a year on my bread making supplies, including molasses/honey and yeast (included in my $77/wk grocery total) A mill is wonderful as the breads taste much sweeter--I have a model I bought used that still has its life time guarantee. It is a Kitchen Mill, made by k-Tech. I had my kneader about a year before the mill, and I was glad for the wait as it would have been harder for me to learn and add two new duties at once. The way it worked out, I was very comfortable with daily breadmaking before I got my kneader. But if you can afford both at the same time--Go for it!!! It only takes about 10 minutes max to mill enough flour for 4-5 loaves, including the clean-up. Bread does taste much better with fresh milled flour, but any homemade bread is preferable to store bought, whether the flour is fresh milled or not.  Also, the sweetest cornbread can be made from fresh ground corn. I actually mill popcorn--the cheapest I can find! Yum!!

I usually buy the bags for us too, and I store mine in a 5 gallon rubbermaid container from Target. The kind we store our clothes in. I keep it out on my breezeway, and I have never had anything get into it. I have found an excellent source of plastic "buckets" with tight seals to store my flour, sugar, etc. Our local Bi-Lo (grocery store chain here in the south) bakery keeps us supplied with all that we need. Their frostings and spreads come in various size buckets.....we get them, clean them out, let them dry, and they are good to go. The very best part is that they are absolutely free to us. I believe the biggest ones that I've gotten from them hold about 35 lbs of flour....we've been buying 50 lbs at a time (every couple of months.....I haven't really gotten back into bread baking yet, but I'm working on it). I just use one of the big buckets and a smaller one, and my flour and other goods have been "critter" free so far. You might want to check with the bakery at your local grocery store, or even the Dairy Queen if you have one of those where you live. We've gotten several of their buckets too....for free of course. That's the best price in my book <g> The key though, is no moisture. A perfect storage is  those rubber maid tubes. A large one holds one bushel. I just keep my  tubes in the basement in a corner. I order mine from a local farmer who keeps her grain in steel bins (outside of course) and brings it to  the city when I order. After the wheat is milled, that is a different matter. The wheat must be used immediately or be frozen. It will  quickly deteriorate - the beneficial vitamins etc will quickly oxidize -- at least that is what I have been told. I will let the more experienced bread millers answer those questions. 

When I used to mill flour and keep it in the freezer in any kind of solid container (bucket, tupperware, etc.) it always had a funny taste. I think it was because of the air space. We started using jumbo sized Ziplocs and the taste disappeared. I also froze 16-1/2 cup portions (the amt. needed for 5 loaves). It is nice to save the time & noise.

Caveat:  Most of the information on this site comes from back issues of The MOMYS Digest, an email-only forum for mothers of many young siblings. It is offered in good faith and is not intended to replace medical advice, pastoral counsel, your husband's opinion, or your own good sense.

To subscribe to The MOMYS Digest, click here.