I would like an honest comparison between the Diamonte and Country Living Grain Mills, OR advice on a less expensive mill that functions as well, as these are touted to.

-- Vickie Liguori (meadobrk@cfw.com), December 31, 1999

Answers

Vickie I have a Corona w/high hopper. It was $60 including shipping and it does a great job. These mills are made for the Mexican/South American market so they are really made to grind corn, beans, ect, but it does do a fine job on wheat also. I run it through only twice and it's just about as fine as Pilsburys best! If you grind ALOT you might be better off with one of those you mentioned as they are faster, but if not I recommend this one.

-- Jason Youngblood (youngblood1@mindspring.com), December 31, 1999.

I had a Corona and found it to be very difficult to use. It needed a very heavy anchor to keep it from moving about when grinding and it was difficult to get the flour very fine without putting it through more than once. I switched to a Country Living and had a small heavy table made from 2x4s on which to anchor it. It did a fair job, but wasn't completely satisfied. I then bought the extra handle extension that was recently made available and I couldn't be happier. It grinds finely and easily. No putting the wheat through twice. No sore arms. I am very pleased. I am not familiar wth the Diamonte, so couldn't give an opini

-- R (thor610@yahoo.com), January 01, 2000.

We have a Diamont, and 2 coronas or similar mills, one with the stones and one with metal burrs. I think we may have sold or given away the corona with stones, and kept the one with metal burrs to grind peanuts, etc. I have no experience with the Country Living mill, but we bought our diamont based on recommendations of a number of friends, and have had it for 8 years or more, and like it a lot. I makes usable flour on one grinding, and of course it takes some work to use it, but it can be easily motorized if desired. We have been talking about motorizing ours for years, just never thought it was necessary enough to do it. The corona style mills are okay for occassional emergency use, but grind coarser, and slower, and are not nearly as well made. If you plan to grind all your flour for your bread and other uses, the corona is too slow and won't last, in my opinion.

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), January 02, 2000.

For durability, ease of use and output there are no other manual mills that can compare with the Country Living and the Diamant with the possible exception of the German made Schnitzer mills.

I've used both, like both very much and would feel quite happy with either as my lifetime mills for my whole family's use. On the basis of cost the Country Living is generally 50-100 dollars cheaper than the Diamant, maybe more by now I haven't priced a Diamant in a long time.

If you're only going to use the mill occasionally the Family Grain Mill will work quite well. If you want a sustained regular use mill that'll last for years spend the money and get either the Country Living or the Diamant.

........Alan.

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-- A.T. Hagan (athagan@netscape.net), January 06, 2000.

I have a Country Living grain mill and am very pleased with it. It grinds a cup of wheat very finely in about 5-10 minutes. I also grind hard corn for cornmeal. I have tried oats but they take longer because of the softness of the grain, but it can be done. I have even ground popcorn in it, but don't like the taste as well as regular dried corn. In all, I love the mill, and would recommend it to anyone as a good buy. Mary

-- Mary Fraley (kmfraley@orwell.net), January 06, 2000.

I have no experience with the Diamonte. The Country Living Mill is good as is a German mill that has word Family in it I think. Sorry I cant remember exact name. They all cost a pretty penny. So...... I use a modified Corona that I bought with the burrs machined to closer tolerance so it can make relatively fine flour. (Think it cost $5 or so more than standard Corona.) I welded mine to frame of an old exercise bike, then sawed hub from crank handle and welded it to two sprockets from old bikes. Picked size of sprockets so I have choice of two gear ratios. 2:1 and 3:1 This works great and I can grind flour with mill set for finest grind one time through. Takes ten minutes to grind enough flour for one loaf of bread in my bread machine. I rarely have to use the 3:1 ratio unless grinding some varieties of corn or beans. The 3:1 ratio would allow a child or small adult to grind wheat with minimal effort. Could even set up a 4:1 or 5:1 ratio for a very weak person with a lot of time on their hands. Sure not the physical punishment that a Corona with original hand crank would require to grind flour nor the financial punishment the fancier mills exact on anybody buying them.

-- Hermit John (ozarkhermit@pleasedontspamme.com), April 08, 2000.

I have a Back to Basics mill that I got from either Johnny's or Pinetree Seed catalog -- can't remember which but a lot of places carry it. It does a good job grinding rice flour (my daughter and I have celiac disease, can't eat wheat, and rice flour at health food stores is very expensive). But it is slow, and I've started having trouble with my elbow! Lehmen's catalog has a good comparison of several grain mills, which I wish I'd seen before I bought this one. My husband wants to go electric -- I've resisted, not wanting to add anything that would make us more dependent of the power grid, so I'm interested in the modifications that make it easier to do the grinding.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 12, 2000.