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Rye porridge

Yesterday it was a full day of work. But there was nearly two hours of break in the middle of the day, so I decided to quickly visit home. I spent the break sitting on my stairs, reading a book about Chinese hermits. The cat joined me, and the world was all peaceful.

Today after my morning coffee I decided to try grinding my rye grain. I examined the coffee grinder - it was a bit dusty but otherwise fine. I cleaned the dust and poured some grain into the grinder. Spinning the handle of the grinder I could hear gear rattling and grain cracking. After a while I opened the little drawer of the grinder, and inside there was a mixture of whole kernels, broken kernels, and coarse flour. Pretty much what I expected. Coffee beans are a lot bigger than rye grain, so it is no wonder that some of the rye grain survive the process untouched. I poured the mixture back into the grinder and ran it again through the process. I added some more grain, and after a while I had enough for one portion of porridge.

I had a small amount of water boiling in a kettle. I put some salt and all the processed rye into the kettle, and left it simmering on the stove. Ah, this is one of the good aspects of a wood burning stove. Reducing the air intake makes the wood burn slowly, so just a small amount of firewood is enough to keep a kettle simmering for a hour or two. Well, after an hour or so the porridge seemed ready. I filled a plate with the porridge and added two spoonfuls of smashed lingonberries. It is this kind of breakfast which kept my ancestors going, so it was very interesting to get to taste it for real. The weather has been unusually warm, I sat on the stairs enjoying the noon sunshine, slowly eating the porridge. Yum it was good!

Apparently, the coffee grinder was a satisfactory tool for grinding rye grain. But it could be better. For porridge I don't need fine flour, just breaking the kernels would be enough. I know they sell small table-top electric mills, but I don't know if there is manually operated one. Thinking of it, it would be possible to construct one, but with so many things to be done I'm not quite sure if constructing a manually operated grain mill is my highest priority for this winter... Maybe I can just keep on using the coffee grinder until I find or construct a better tool.

At this time of the year the sun sets at 4 pm. After 3 pm I went down to the lake. I didn't catch any fish but the weather was fine and the sunset was nice to watch.

Reading with the cat
Reading with the cat
Grinding rye grain
Grinding rye grain
Yum it is good!
Yum it is good!
Sunset at Lake Paloselkä
Sunset at Lake Paloselkä
tags: 
diary
homesteading
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Comments

Kitty! :D

There is an Amish hardware store in Ohio that sells a lot of non-electric stuff. Some of it is kind of expensive, and I don't know if they ship overseas, but they have stuff that can't be found elsewhere, if all else fails. Here's a link to their hand-crank stuff: https://www.lehmans.com/c-330-hand-cranked-items.aspx?pagesize=100

Thanks for the link! I'll keep my eyes open, if I someday happen to spot a grain mill on a second-hand store.

Yeah... I would like to have one too, but that $250 for the cheapest new one at Lehman's is just too much for me, lol.

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