Trading Post

Terrific hands-on demonstrations. Every mill should have similar things. --MARK

Don't you love kids--they just go at it. Thanks, Mark

Here's our quern, as you might be able to guess, we made it ourselves out of concrete. I wouldn't eat anything from it, but the kids have lots of fun grinding with it! We give them corn and after about 7 passes it's mostly meal. We give them some screens to sift with, but mostly they just keep putting it back in to grind some more.

We also have a little hand mill we let them use. We keep this set very fine or else they run through the corn too quickly. The wooden clicker on the side keeps them from cranking the mill the wrong way and jamming it up.

We also let them try a mortar and pestle. They all want to try it at first, but none of them stick with it too long. It is a lot of work! We have to put some meal in with the corn in the morning, or the first few pounds of the pestle sends everything flying.

Also, here is a picture of our mini stone crane and water wheel for the kids to use.

Matt Tate

I don't know. We just give visitors about a cup of wheat to grind as a demonstration. They rarely grind the whole cup. Except for one little girl who worked on it for a half hour while the rest of her family continued the tour. :)

Hi,

How long does it take to grind one pound of flour?

Thanks, Mark

We would LOVE something like this for Graue Mill. It may be something we create or purchase in the future. Thanks!

One thing that we have done at Ressler's Mill is to set up a small quern. We can demonstrate on a small scale how wheat is ground into flour with a pair of stones. Children especially like to turn the stone to see how much flour they can make.

Hello fellow SPOOM members!

I am wondering if anyone has any good resources for teaching visitors about the technical aspects of a gristmill. I'm trying to find hands-on activities for guests, in particular students, that will help them gain a better understanding of the engineering behind waterwheel gristmills.

Does anyone know of or have any resources on this sort of thing?