Schnitzer Flaker

Here is a product that you may not have heard of. It's called a "Schnitzer Flaker".

It is a durable little contraption made of wood and metal that pretty effortlessly "flakes" your whole grains into a width that you determine.

My family buys the whole oat groats in the bulk from various suppliers and then I put the groats into a bucket I buy for a dollar from a donut shop. A lid goes on the top until we are ready for our morning oatmeal or to add oats to our bread...I scoop a cup into the hopper on top of the flaker and we turn the crank and magically rolled oats drop out into our bowl. I say "magically" because many or most people have never seen the oat groat grain...and put together the fact that a rolled oat is merely a squished grain. I rarely have to roll my own as the kids love to do it. In fact...I have 3-5 year olds that will stay entertained rolling oats for as long as I will let them! If a child that young can do it...you certainly can and not break a sweat.

The value of having such a tool is that you can store a whole grain...that flaked fresh is healthier than eating stored rolled grains that have been processed. I believe that the flavor will be retained better as well over the long term.

Oatmeal flaked fresh has almost a milky quality to it and doesn't seem so dry and stale. Once you have supped on fresh oatmeal you may turn into an oatmeal snob...as there is no comparison between store bought rolled oats and homemade!

Schnitzer flakers are pricey. I got lucky and put "craigslist schnitzer" into a search engine and found a guy in New York willing to ship it to me! I was able to buy one for less than $100...I think he sold it to me for $70.

There are other products I know on the market (even made by Schnitzer) that combine both a grain mill and a flaker into one tool. Perhaps the one you currently have can flake?! There are also less expensive options out there if you look. The others I can't vouch for...but...if you go with the Schnitzer flaker...I expect it will outlast your mortal probation and increase the quality of your flaked grains experience!