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hey and hi.

The Old School blog has a new home at http://mynewoldschool.com. See ya over there.
Extra Credit: hit my writer's blog at Inklings.

Welcome to Old School!

The Damsel in Dis Dress is your teacher for today. Her qualifications are that she is "old."
Old School is where you get to learn about some old skills and other thingies that Grandma used to know like the back of her age-spotted hand.

Why would you want to learn old stuff? Two reasons. 1. Last time the Damsel checked, the economy was still tanking. Some things you'll learn in Old School will help save money. 2. Other things will help you be more self-reliant. You'll learn how to do things that Grandma used to do all the time, but people have forgotten.

But why, Damsel? Why? Because the day may come that we'll need those skills, and it's part of being prepared. Plus, the Damsel thinks it's nice to keep those skills from being lost.

Sometimes we'll learn old stuff done a new way. Take for example our first lesson: Grinding wheat with an electric mill. Grandma would have loved one of these babies:

Grandma used a contraption that rubbed two flat millstones together. And it's true, we should learn how to grind wheat without electricity, just in case. But that's another day.

So here we go. This is how we grind the wheat, said the little red hen. Not every electric mill is just like this, but most have certain things in common. First you assemble it. This plastic cup snaps on to the base. The mill will grind without it, but it helps keep the flour from blowing everywhere. The Damsel really hates that.

Assemble the mill, and now we'll put in the grain. Here the Damsel is using Hard White Winter Wheat. Types of wheat is a whole 'nother can of weevils. We'll talk about that later. Much later.

The Damsel loves sticking her fingers in the grain. Well, it's better than sticking her fingers in the light socket.

Fill the hopper with grain and turn it on. Why is it called a hopper? No idea. It has nothing to do with hopping. The Damsel fills the hopper three times when she makes whole wheat bread. The mill pan can hold that much without dumping it, and it's just about the right amount of flour for a batch of five loaves.

Now the Damsel presses her hands over her ears because it sounds like an airplane is taking off in her kitchen. Thankfully it doesn't take long.

Take the thing apart again. The flour in that plastic cup is perfectly good to use...it's best to take it off each time and dump the flour out.

The flour is nice and warm right now, so if you make bread with it immediately, it will raise faster. And someone told the Damsel that fresh ground flour has more B vitamins. (Freezing the flour at this point will retain the vitamins for later, if you're not in the mood to bake bread Just This Minute.)

So there you have it. That took about ten minutes, and although the Damsel is now deaf she likes how quickly Grain becomes Flour.

Any questions for the teacher?