Pedal Power Flour Mill

I made my first bicycle powered flour mill in 2001 while living in a big group house in college. I first bought a hand-grind flour mill simply because I thought it would be poetic and lovely to watch whole grains turn into flour. Flour is one of those ubiquitous food items that most people don't have any idea where it comes from.

The conversion from hand-power to bicycle-power was not quite as complicated as it may seem. I had a machinist make me a pulley and mount it to the wheel. Then I added a v-belt and built a wooden base for tension and stability.

When I'm not grinding flour at home to bake cookies, I sometimes take the bicycle mill out for demonstrations around town. It appeared at the Velocipede Mania show at the Rock Paper Scissors Collective in Oakland, CA in 2007 (see photos at left). I've also built two more pedal-powered flour mills over the years - one for The Edible Schoolyard kitchen classroom and another for a friend as barter for a place to stay.

If you want to take a crack at making one yourself, this article by Jack Jenkins is a must read. The mill I use is called a Country Living Grain Mill and is great for converting to bike use because it already has a large wheel with an attached groove.

Floursacks: New and Old

As part of the Pedal Power bicycle mill project, I designed and produced hand silk-screened cotton flour sacks inspired by the ones of yesteryear, including a make-it-yourself tiny toy bicycle (see photos at left). I made bicycle wheel cookies too!

The history of cotton flour sacks is a story of thrift and creative re-use. Reaching their heyday around 1930, people used to purchase flour in sewn cotton sacks. Housewives would save the fabric and make clothes, curtains, and other items out of them. It developed to the point where the flour companies would print patterns on the sacks to encourage customers to buy their brand. There were even some with doll or toy patterns, which could be turned into stuffed toys after the flour was all used up (see photo below).