I’ve been baking bread now for quite a while now. The bread baking bug first got ahold of me when visiting friends. They had a bread making machine – something that you put all the basic ingredients into, hit a button, and presto. Naturally we bought one soon after, and I was, well, "hooked".

But sometime last year I decided there was too much plastic and electronics between me and the bread, and started making it by hand. Just the ingredients, a bowl, time, Radio 4, and me. What a difference. It’s become my number one way to relax – especially after a session at the keyboard. I love making bread. All sorts. And I also love not going to to the bakers to buy bread. It’s a nano-step closer to self-sufficiency. And a very rewarding one.

So this Christmas I progressed backwards even more. I received a fantastic present – a grain mill – Hawo’s Queen 1 model. Beautifully simple and rock solid. The millstones are corundum, 10cm in diameter.

As well as giving you the total health benefit that only freshly milled wheat (and other grain) can, milling your own on a loaf-by-loaf basis is fun, and gives me my daily fix for the simpler things in life. I guess the next step is to grow my own. I’m just not sure I have the space!