On the negative side, stone mills grind slowly and are very fussy about which grains they will grind.  If the cereal is a bit moist or if the seed being ground is a little bit oily, the mill becomes instantly blocked.

Steel burr mills grind fast and coarsely and are inexpensive.  Coarse flour makes heavy bread.  The metal grinding faces tend to wear out and have to be replaced occasionally—­if they can be replaced.  Breads on the heavy side are still delicious; for many years I made bread with an inexpensive steel burr mill attachment that came with my juicer.

Some steel burr mills will also grind oily seed like sesame and sunflower.  However, oily seeds can be ground far more easily half-a-cup at a time in a little inexpensive electric spice/coffee mill, the sort with a single fast-spinning propeller.

I currently think the best compromise are hammermills.  The grain dribbles into a chamber full of fast-spinning teeth that literally pound the grain into powder.  Since air flows through with the grain the flour is not heated very much.  This type of mill is small, very fast, intermediate in price between steel mills and stone mill, lasts a long time, but when grinding, sounds like a Boeing 747 about to take off.  It is essential to wear hearing protectors when using it.

Awareness of bread quality is growing.  One excellent new U.S. business, called Great Harvest Bakery is a fast-growing national franchise chain.  They bake and sell only whole grain breads; all their wheat flour is freshly ground daily on the premises in the back.  Unfortunately, as of the writing of this book, they do not grind their rye flour but bring it in sacks.  I can’t recommend their rye breads.  The founder of Great Harvest is a knowledgeable buyer who fully understands my next topic, which is that wheat is not wheat.

There are great differences between hard bread wheats; being organically grown is no cure all for making good or nutritious bread.  Great Harvest understands this and uses top quality grain that is also Organic.

When I first stated making my own bread from my own at-home-ground flour I was puzzled by variations in the dough.  Sometimes the bread rose well and was spongy after baking like I wanted it to be.  Sometimes it kneaded stickily and ended up flat and crumbly like a cake.  Since I had done everything the same way except that I may have bought my wheat berries from different healthfood stores, I began to investigate the subject of wheat quality.

The element in the cereal that forms the rubbery sponge in risen bread so it doesn’t crumble and rises high without collapsing, is gluten.  The word glue derives from gluten.  The gluten content of various wheats varies.  Bread bakers use “hard wheat” because of its high gluten content.  Gluten is a protein and gluten comprises most of the protein in bread wheat; the protein content and the gluten content are almost identical.