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How to Use a Stone Grist Mill

Old-fashioned stone grist mills allowed community members to grind fresh-grown grains into meal for use in baking and cooking. If you live near one of these old-fashioned, water-powered mills and the owners allow community members to grind wheat or corn, drop by to participate in history. Stone grist mills vary in their use of automation. Some, like the Isaac Ludwig Mill in Amherst, Massachusetts, use automated levers to maneuver the grain through the mill. Others, like the mill at Sutter's Fort in Sacramento, California, rely on a human operator to maneuver the grain.

Things You'll Need

Grains
Bag

Instructions

- 1
  Take your grains, such as corn kernels or wheat berries, to the stone grist mill. The mill can only grind grains; it cannot do any other prep work, such as separating wheat from the chaff or stripping kernels from the corn.
- 2
  Pour your grains into the chute or funnel that delivers them to the stone for grinding.
- 3
  Watch your grains fall through the chute onto the grinding stone. The water-powered grist mill grinds your grains naturally. As the grains turn into small pieces of meal or flour, they build up around the edge of the stone and fall naturally into a bucket or chute.
- 4
  Sift the meal manually or watch as the grist mill automatically sifts it. If sifting it yourself, use a large hand sifter to separate the finer particles of corn meal or wheat flour from the larger chunks of corn kernels or wheat bran.
- 5
  Place the ground corn meal or wheat flour in a bag and discard the leftover kernels or bran.

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