Felicia: I've had this YouTube channel for a couple of years now, and we're almost to 50,000 subscribers. And it has dawned on me that I have never really shared my personal home milling journey with y'all. And so now it's time. So welcome back. This is episode two. This is something new that I've been doing on my channel where it's actually in a podcast format, but it's unsifted because it's unfiltered. It's really unedited unless something disastrous happens. ⁓ and it's just me kind of sitting down with a camera, chatting with y'all, and kind of going deeper into ⁓ kind of the behind the scenes, but just deeper with information and anything that I can think of that pops into my brain to share with y'all in a more real, authentic type format. ⁓ and I really wanted to start this as well because my list of videos that I want to make is ridiculously and insanely long, and I kind of need to do something else. ⁓ especially when it comes to answering people's questions and just ideas that I want to do. And so that's what this podcast is. So ⁓ as of right now, we are just on YouTube podcast. So you can see me here on YouTube. But ⁓ you know, let me know how you like it, feedback, and I'll see you about sharing this podcast on other podcast platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcast. So as I stated, we're gonna be, I'm gonna be sharing with y'all my personal milling. slash YouTube journey because it does tie into YouTube. And really it started ⁓ before I had children, actually. And ⁓ my husband and I were out of town and we were staying with an older couple who graciously were hosting us. And so we were staying the night with them because we were visiting a church there. And then ⁓ the next morning they made us breakfast and these are this was a wonderful Older southern couple from Georgia, and I love them so much, but they made us pancakes, and they were the best pancakes I've ever had in my life, and by far the most filling. And she told me that they milled their grain, their wheat, to make these pancakes. And it was the first time I had ever, ever heard about this. Homemade pancakes, if I ever I actually, first of all, I don't even think I I've very rarely had homemade pancakes growing up anyway. I mean, I grew up typical ⁓ you know, bread from the store, white bread. We weren't huge bread eaters, especially like growing up. But I mean, we we had frozen waffles, the frozen pancakes. ⁓ those little like toaster strudels. Loved those. Bagels from the store. So we were not anti-bread growing up. I mean, I no one really was back in the 90s except The Atkins diet, you know, the the no-carb thing. So people are more ditching bread because of cards, not because of gluten or whatever. So that's a long rabbit trail. To say that I, first of all, I just really never had homemade pancakes to begin with, much less. I had never tasted anything that was 100% freshly milled flour. And I believe these were spelt pancakes, but it really wouldn't matter what kind of wheat she used. We were so intrigued. My husband and I both were so intrigued about milling these whole grains. And we, you know, these these are stupid good pancakes. And so we asked for more information and they gave us Sue Becker C D, Do Not Eat the Bread of Idleness. And it was a long way, ⁓ several hour drive back home. And we listened to it. So my husband and I both were still fairly newlyweds. we had been married for less than two years. I had I had didn't really even know how to cook when I got married. I could burn water. and that may sound like an exaggeration, but let's it's kind of not it was that bad. So I was just trying to figure out how to cook. ⁓ but and then I'd got into couponing, like wanting to save money. And you know, with true couponing, like extreme couponers, that's when the show was like really big. ⁓ and so I, you know, I I really liked couponing, but not. really much healthy food with that. So, you know, I was I was buying that. ⁓ but then so I was learning how to cook, having to kind of cook from scratch because it was cheaper. And yeah, I was it was a mess. And my poor husband has been through has been through it. The fact that he's still married to me shows how how committed he is to those bowels. He has put up with some bad food. Over the years. And so we listen to this. Here I am again, not really even knowing how to cook. Definitely never baked. I mean, the most I ever did, if I ever made muffins, it was from the box. Like add water and bake. I mean, mix and bake. That that was it. Frozen cookie dough. That was the extent of any sort of baking, if I ever did that. And ⁓ so we listened to this CD with Sue Becker, and everything she said just clicked for us. It made so much sense. And we were like, yes. Absolutely, we are going to do this. and my husband said, Okay, we need, you know, I can't really get a grain mill right now, but we're gonna be looking for used grain mills, and I'll let you know when we can do it because he had to just set some money aside. And within about a month, ⁓ we had enough money where I was able to buy a grain mill. I found a refurbished wonder mill from eBay for a hundred dollars, and then I got a seven-pound bucket of hard red wheat from breadbeckers and about a seven pound bucket of soft white wheat from breadbeckers as well and then of course some yeast and I had their armed with their red breadbecker's red cookbook that they have and still set and they still have it. And I just I just started. There was no YouTube then I mean, I mean there was YouTube, but no one was teaching this on YouTube. ⁓ there there's just nothing. I never went online to really learn about it. I think I did discover soon after that that breadbeckers at least was had their classes they would that they would do live. They were posting them on their website. Now they're all on YouTube, but at the time they were posting them. But these were two and three hour long classes. And I I wasn't necessarily sitting down To watch them. I'm sure they would have helped me, but I think they're more helpful to people maybe in person. I don't know. I I don't remember why. I mean, I would watch them. ⁓ and I think they would help a little bit. But bottom line is I started where this was over a decade ago, and there just wasn't really help out there. And I floundered a lot. For the life of me, I could not get a standard. loaf of bread. But my husband grew up where they were bread eaters and he had determined, no, we are ditching store-bought bread and we are doing this. So it did really help that my husband was 100% on board. And he will tell you, and eventually one day I'll I will have my husband on this podcast with me. And he will tell you that he was definitely kind of choking back. some of the that early bread and just the whole time just saying ⁓ it's good for me and and this is good for me. And ⁓ he did have some health issues at the time. We did not r realize they were health issues. Again, we're in our early 20s, mid mid twenties or so. And so, you know, it's one of those things looking back, we're like, ⁓ wow, that was that was not normal. That was not cool. And one day ⁓ I do plan on doing an episode while I'm gonna sit down with him and we're actually gonna discuss the changes that we have seen in our lives. With using 100% fresh and milled wheat in our home. But that's the thing, y'all, is I just started, but I could not figure out a loaf of bread. I could not get it. They were coming out dense and hard. And I just said, forget it. If you want to do this, we're just gonna do like hamburger buns and hoagies. And for years, that's what I did. so I was just making these little hamburger patties. I think it was still like breadbackers. Typical yeast bread loaf recipe. That's just what I was using in that red cookbook. But I would just shape it into little like hamburger type buns or little ⁓ like six-inch style hoagie type buns. And that's what I did. No rolls, no yeast bread, no French bread, no Italian breads, nothing, nothing like that. That's just what I did. And then we started a homesteading journey. Not Too long after that. So now we were living out on our property. So we were like in a little apartment when we first got married. We were just in a typical little apartment with this dinky little apartment type oven. So I didn't even have a full size oven whenever we got married. It's just it's one of those smaller compact ovens. So it's not like I could really fit a lot in it anyway. Like one nine by thirteen. That's it. ⁓ so that's what I started with. And then we moved to a dinky little FEMA trailer. That we got used. And if you know anything about FREM FEMA trailers, they are not camper trailers with all the nice like storage and stuff like that. No, no, no, no. This was a teeny tiny little FEMA trailer with like nothing in it. And that oven is so insanely small. And ⁓ yeah, shortly after moving, ⁓ the oven no longer worked. And so ⁓ for about a year. ⁓ I was literally making bread for us in a little tiny toaster oven in the FEMA trailer. So I was making bread in small, tiny little places. ⁓ we were not mobile, but trust me, it it's funny looking back, like there was no mixer. I didn't have room for it. It was just my grain mill that I had to like pull out of storage, you know, mill my grains and then do everything by hand. And then again, hamburger buns and the hoagie rolls. And I had to do it a lot because I could really only cook like two or three hamburger buns and like maybe four hoagie rolls. And that's I think that's why I mainly started doing like the hoagie style ⁓ rolls because I could at least do four in the toaster oven. And yeah, it's just funny. ⁓ man, the things that I that we lived through. But we were really wanting to be on our own. We really wanted our own land and This is how we were doing it. ⁓ this was also whenever my husband was going into business for himself. So what a time for us. And ⁓ so that's just what I did. Eventually, my husband built me like an outdoor kitchen, which so I had a full size oven just like under a canopy on a deck with just like pallets that we got for free and plywood. I mean, we're we're like again. We were rednecking it, let me tell you. But it worked. And I look back on that first place with fondness. We never ended up with a house on that property. We did it up it eventually ended up selling. And but at least I had that was the first time that I actually had a full-size oven, and now I could make more hamburger buns and hoagie rolls. ⁓ still no mixer, because again, I I didn't have the space for it and it was just too cumbersome to have to. constantly get it out. So I was still just kneading the dough by hand. ⁓ just hamburger buns, hoagie style rolls. And then we ⁓ but at least I had a full size oven. And this is where y'all, this was still all in Florida. And my grains were outside. I had buckets of grain in that outdoor kitchen. And all that we had was like one of those little, you know, hundred dollar 10 by 10 canopies, you know, like you see at farmers markets type type things. That's what was over. my ⁓ outdoor kitchen and my grains were underneath like a table my husband had built. ⁓ and so or they were, you know, they were mostly sheltered from the elements and from the rain. But if it rained really hard, they actually did get some moisture, you know, some ⁓ water on top of the buckets and the grains were still fine. So that's why I tell you like don't be fussy when it comes to storing your grains because y'all, that was like in Florida, With all of our humidity and all of our heat, and I never had to throw out grains. So that was a side note there. But ⁓ so where was I? Okay, so outdoor kitchen. We are out in the woods, and ⁓ so we did eventually sell that property and move. ⁓ then we were like in a little rental for a time with an actual full-size oven. Still hamburger buns, hoagie rolls. And then finally we bought a new place with where we were moving. And now I had a house. Like this was our first house that we had since we've been married. And this is several years into our marriage. And so I at this time, I had already been milling my grains for, I don't know, five, six, seven years. I I don't know. And I had never really done anything else beyond that. And finally my husband came to me and said, look, it's time that you move on. I want a sandwich loaf. Figure it out. and and that's the thing, is I will say I am who I am today a lot because of my husband. He has been the one to push me because he knows what I'm capable of. And he's the one who pushes me and kind of forces me to be without excuse, ⁓ to become the best that I can. And he knows that like I can learn how to do this and just figure it out. And so I did. I finally got in. I I now could use a stand mixer because I actually had a large kitchen now that ⁓ you know I could leave it out and my grain mill and then I even had like a little walk-in pantry where my grains could be stored and a little milling station. Y'all I felt like I had arrived okay like hello finally ⁓ I I I finally finally had arrived and ⁓ So I had a decent sized kitchen now. I actually had space. Like for the first time I felt like I actually had space. And so then I just started experimenting. ⁓ still nothing was really on YouTube. Nothing, ⁓ except again, ⁓ I would I would go back to like breadbreakers classes, but then I just really started just watching YouTube videos of just people who are making bread anyway, like with just white flour, and I was learning shaping techniques and I was learning how they would what they would use in their recipes. And then I just really start experimenting. And honestly, I don't really remember other details other than that. And then finally, and really it was the shaping technique that I learned from Bake with Jack here on YouTube. Whenever I took his shaping technique for a loaf of bread, like hello, I pulled out those loaves of bread, and angels were singing, huh? Like Reasons that bread. I finally, finally did and created a an amazing loaf of bread made with 100% fresh chimmeled wheat, not using commercial yeast, but I did it like a typical sandwich bread, and then I did it again. And I developed my own recipe. That's my simple yeast bread loaf recipe. And I finally did it. And I was so proud of myself. And then I started experimenting, you know, with cornbread. ⁓ you know, I was converting a recipe for cornbread and then with ⁓ I think I'd already ⁓ was doing muffins, but it was mainly now I just had the I it definitely helped to have the space to do this, but you know, and then I started doing muffins and cornbread and I figured out biscuits. My husband was like, I want a biscuit recipe. And I had tried many a biscuit recipe that was ⁓ like ⁓ so terrible. Like so terrible. My poor husband. My poor family. He and my husband is brutally honest. He is not the one. If I give him a piece if I give him bread and it's not good, he's not one to be like, good job for trying. No, he's gonna look at me and say, Well, that is not good at all. But but honestly, and I know that that can seem harsh and it may hurt your feelings if someone is honest and you just did not do a good recipe, but that's what helps you to grow. Cause like I kind of need to know if it's just a legit bad recipe before I share it with others, for heaven's sakes. So I am appreciative of that. ⁓ and then you know, and then we started learning, and then I just started growing from there, but something clicked with that simple yeast breadloaf recipe, and I was like, I can do this. And then 2020 hit. And you may be familiar what happened in 2020, the whole COVID, Rona craziness, lockdowns, galore. ⁓ now I'm here in Florida, so And honestly, with our lifestyle, we are homesteaders. My husband had already been running his own business from home and for for a few years now. He was already his own boss. We already homeschooled. We were already homesteaders. So and we were in Florida. So our our lives actually did not really were not as disrupted, I think, as many other people experience. Mainly because we had already set ourselves up to be more insulated from that, to have more freedom. Praise the Lord. It was, I mean, honestly, all of our life's choices were totally confirmed for 2020. But then, you know, end of 2020, you know, throughout 2020, I was now seeing people ⁓ really get into baking their own bread. So ⁓ they were asking questions because now flour was gone from the shelf. And now people were realizing, well, I can't, I want to make sourdough or whatever. I want to make bread from home because I'm stuck at home, but I have no flour. ⁓ I've heard that you can mill wheat, mill your grains to bake bread. What about that? And I started seeing people on Facebook asking these questions. I'm like, Well, I've already been doing this for like a decade at this time. ⁓ so I can help. And I started answering people's questions. And my husband then said, you know. You've always wanted a YouTube channel, which was true. And I'd kind of tinkered with like blogs and stuff like that. He said you had always wanted a YouTube channel. How about you start a YouTube channel all about this? Milling your wheat, baking bread, all about milling your own grains. And I looked at him and said, Okay, yeah, that's great. But I'm like, how many videos could I possibly do for that? I'm thinking like four or five videos. ⁓ looking back at things, hindsight truly is 2020 because now y'all seriously, I cannot keep up with the amount of video ideas. We have a running list of it. And it's crazy. And here we are, we're almost at 50,000 subscribers. I think we're coming up on four years of the channel in January, which is crazy. And I think every single one of y'all who is subscribed and are who here who choose to listen to me. But I posted my very first video in January of I think 2021. So yeah, we're about to come up on four years. So January 2021, I posted my very first video, which was my simple yeast bread loaf recipe. And y'all, no joke, my I started with my iPhone 6 that I had. ⁓ I think in 2020, 2021, they had already come out with like the iPhone 10. This was a like used iPhone 6 I'd gotten from eBay. And that's what I started to film on. And the my first video was I had a little tripod, but I didn't have ⁓ it was for a camera and I didn't have like the attachment you need to hold your cell phone. So I rigged up like with rulers and rubber bands to hold up my phone on this tripod to give me like an overhead shot. And yeah, I was I was high tech, but You know, you just gotta press record, as Sean Cannell from Think Media says. And I that's the thing is I did binge a lot of videos on YouTube about how to start a YouTube channel. ⁓ so I gave myself that kind of training. My husband is also in marketing, that's his business that he owns. And so he was definitely able to give me some pointers. And I just started. And because my of my husband's business, we do build websites. And so I did shortly after go ahead and build a website because we already knew how to do that, which is great. And I just I just started. ⁓ but that's what I did is my simple yeast bread loaf recipe. That was my very first video. And I started getting subscribers pretty much immediately immediately within that first month. I'd gotten my very first credit with Azure Standard for sharing. So like you can share your link to anyone with Azure Standard for Azure Standard. And if they sign up, then you get like a $25 credit. And that's what I did that first month. And I was so excited. Like I got a $25 credit. Like someone signed up under my link and it was really cool. But the channel really started taking off. And we've really always grown. I'm I'm very blessed and very thankful. Eventually, I think it was about six months with the channel. My husband ⁓ came on because basically he told me, get to X amount and I'll take you on as a client. It's basically what he would basically. ⁓ and that's what he did. And so he was then able To help me with it. And to this day, he is Mr. Grains and Grit. And trust me, this channel would not be what it is without him. He helps me so much. People ask me all the time, like, how do you do all this? You homeschool, you homestead. ⁓ I have a large family. It's my husband. He's the business part of it. So you see my face, but he does so many things behind the scene. I'm very thankful for him. ⁓ but yeah, and then it's just been growing, and this channel has definitely forced me to grow even more because of this channel. I have experimented with recipes that I probably would not have tried on my own. We're talking like croissants, ⁓ so many different ones, and just so many other breads. ⁓ I am working on sourdough at the moment. Actually, I will be filming tomorrow ⁓ me trying to make ⁓ sourdough with ⁓ 100% freshly milled eincorn. And I'm gonna be recording that kind of my thought process walking with me. And I'm not sure if that video is gonna be out yet by the time this podcast goes out. I think it's coming, I think it's going out after this podcast. So trying to think of my schedule in my head. But ⁓ that's the wonderful thing about YouTube is I I have grown so much as a baker and as a cook because of you guys, because y'all are asking me questions and I really want to know the answers if I don't know the answers and This has really been fun. I am so blessed by all the opportunities that has come. I'm in a place where it's crazy because looking back and seeing how when I got married, you know, I didn't know how to cook. And I never in a million years saw myself actually teaching people how to cook, how to bake, how to be milling your grains. I am I am milling my own wheat, something I didn't even know existed. Okay, all my life. I did not know about this until I was how old was I? 25? 25? Going on, 26 years old. And I'd never heard of this. And I I just remember that light bulb moment listening to Sue Becker's talk. And I'm and I'm so grateful for Sue Becker because she has just shared this message with so many people. And more people now. Are coming on board and sharing this message. So I was pretty much the first one on the scene on YouTube, at least that I'm aware of, who was talking about nothing but freshly milled grains. I niched down all the way. I I saw it on other channels like Farmhouse on Boone. ⁓ there are other ones out there. Warty is another one who, ⁓ anette reader. She they talk about milling your grains, but that's not all that they do. And so I wanted to be like, no, that's all I do. Like, you're not going to see any all-purpose flower. We are only going to be this because this is really the information. I know for me, like I wanted to give y'all the information that I wish I had when I started. And I and so basically I'm wanting y'all to skip like the seven years that I had to, you know, seven, eight years that I just was struggling and and had to figure it out. And I'm wanting to give y'all a chance to really catch up and speed up and speed up through that. ⁓ that you know, I wasn't able to do. I floundered and just kind of had to figure it out. And hopefully this channel has been helpful for y'all to give you more confidence to do it much faster than I did. And I know that it's a learning curve, but I've become so passionate about this issue. I already was beforehand, but like even more so because on my on this milling journey, tied up with YouTube journey as well, it has shown me how. Even more important this issue is. I mean, the bread really is the staff of life. And how so many people's lives have been changed just by switching to real grains. And I think it is like the missing piece for many people. I have seen so many of y'all comment saying that y'all were praying to God, like, God, just show me what am I supposed to do with my diet. I am sick, I'm overweight, I'm whatever it is. And you know, you said you found one of my videos. and that kind of started you on that path of of eating healthy, eating biblic biblically, biblically, because I'm not only just here to teach you how you how to mill your grains, but why it is important from a biblical biblical perspective. I cannot talk today. I'm gonna take some water. Hold on. And I will say that part of this journey now has also come up, ⁓ come about to actually me being on my own personal health journey and kind of putting a ⁓ shining a light on issues that I had in my life. Not so much health issues, but you notice that I did start this channel where I was obese. ⁓ I have been overweight on this channel. So I'm gonna go ahead and cut it off now. I will get into my weight loss journey later, but it is part of my home milling journey. ⁓ you can have real bread and pee at a healthy weight. But that's pretty much it, y'all. I hopefully this was helpful. And now I'm still on this journey. I'm still expanding, expanding, still learning new things. Now it's sourdough. Now I've got to tackle sourdough with 100% fresh and milk wheat. And I'm really just lazy. That's really what it boils down to. But I am gonna be ⁓ getting into that. Hopefully, I need to. I keep telling myself, but that's my next level. of my home milling journey that I'm hoping to to reach. So hopefully this kind of gave y'all some behind the scenes of my milling journey. Let me know the comments below where you're at with your milling journey. And I'll talk to you later. Bye.