By Will Bonsall
Many folks have a Corona hand mill in their kitchen (and many more should) for grinding whole wheat into flour or corn into meal. However, they often fail to recognize the many other uses for this versatile device. Over the years, I have come up with a whole bunch of ideas to maximize its usefulness.
For example, if you adjust the plates a little bit looser than for flour, you get a coarse meal that is ideal for a cooked cereal. Of course, if you want fine flour, you must sift that meal and regrind it. The same applies to corn. In fact, I did the same with naked barley, cracking it just coarsely enough to take up more water when cooking than whole kernel. I set it so coarse as to barely break the kernel, which allowed it to cook faster and more thoroughly.
Processing buckwheat (a Japanese/common type, not Tartary) into flour is easy.
The first grinding should be loose enough so that most of the hull remains in pieces to easily sift it out. While the useable pieces pass through, it will still be coarser than desired and can be reground for flour. Some useable kernel bits will remain in the hulls and can be reground to pass through the sifter. This regrind will also contain tiny bits of dark hulls. They will not be objectionable. However, if using Tartary buckwheat, those tiny bits of hull, however few and small, will render the flour horribly bitter.
I have run hull-less oats through my mill, cracking them coarsely and then using as steel-cut oats. This will not produce rolled oats like for granola; for this I have another device.
I also use my Corona to make many non-grain products. Garlic powder is one example. Chopped garlic can be dried to a point that it grinds into a fine flour. It is very important that the garlic is very dry or else it tends to form a gummy layer on the grinder plate, which requires a jack hammer to remove. It also works best to not grind too tightly for the same reason. This should be done in a cold environment (freezing if possible).
One can also dry lemon peel to make your own powder to dust your dishes with. Consider other citrus fruits as well. Remember to remove the white pith that can impart bitterness. Ginger and turmeric basically work the same. They have more moisture, which tends to leave little threads (that do not do any harm).
I make an apple flour by grinding dried apples during very cold, dry conditions (such as in the wood shed on a February day). The powder will quickly lump up thanks to the sugar and gums. I have done the same with sunchokes, shredding them coarsely and allowing them to dry thoroughly. Using an over-tight setting on the hand mill generates heat that causes the sunchokes to gum up. All this also applies to sweet peppers for making paprika powder.
Dehydrated potatoes can be made into a meal. I shred potatoes coarsely before steaming them. Then I allow them to air-dry or oven-dry until crisp. Then I grind the dehydrated shredded potatoes into a coarse meal; it stores very well and reconstitutes quickly to mashed potatoes for camping.
What about peanuts and other nuts and seeds for butters? Under usual conditions you get an oily meal useful in several ways but not as butter. I’ve made peanut butter accidentally by grinding the peanuts finely on a hot humid day — conditions which help the oil to separate.
I found directions online to dehull sunflower seeds by replacing the inner grind plate of the hand mill with a plastic or wooden disc though I did not follow through. It is worth experimenting.
It is extremely easy to split field peas or soybeans by simply adjusting the plates very loose and winnowing the hulls away afterwards.
There are several models of hand mills but in my opinion the traditional one made in Columbia is best by far.
Will Bonsall lives in Industry, Maine, where he directs Scatterseed Project, a seed-saving enterprise. He is the author of “Will Bonsall’s Essential Guide to Radical Self-Reliant Gardening” (Chelsea Green, 2015).
This article was originally published in the fall 2025 issue of The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener.