Is There A Machine That Can De-Hull Lentils For Home Use?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

My husband and I use red lentils A LOT in Indian and Middle Eastern dishes. They come de-hulled and split from ethnic stores, and I would like to grow them next season myself, but if I can't de-hull and split them, then I would rather buy them. But the thing is.... I have land, I have a garden, and I want to do it myself if it is at all possible.

I cannot for the life of me, in searching the internet, find any sort of instructions or machines about doing this on a small scale. I realize that most (if not all) of the people who read this forum do not use red lentils the way we do, but please.... if anyone has any information or internet links on this subject, I would be greatly appreciative.

-- Leslie A. (lesliea@home.com), January 28, 2001

Answers

Consider this. If a machine to dehull exists, someone dehulled the lentils by hand and took note of each manual step that was done, then developed mechanical processes for each. Maybe a pea sheller could be modified or a salad dryer could be used to split the dried ones. While you are looking for available mechanics, give it some thought, you may have a patent in the works for something to accomodate small scale production. Your local library should have some material on food processing techniques that may help.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 28, 2001.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ