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Bread

Posted at 3:58 PM on January 16, 2008 by Vera Schabicki (2 Comments)

I have made bread for many years but since moving to my new rural home it has become a serious obligation.

I try to live by the rule that I must be able to pronounce the words on an ingredient label and recognize them as food; this is pretty difficult with bread. Trader Joe's has some really good bread and my old farmers market in California had at least two bakers. There were also many lovely bakeries in the area and our food coop supported them. My local grocery store here in the mid south has mushy white stuff or whole wheat with unpronounceable things in it.

My local natural foods store does have some really good brands of bread. Alvarado Street has delicious bagels and tortillas, all sprouted whole grains and very yummy (toasted with butter, mmmm) and French Meadow Bakery (the summer bread is really good), very delicious organic all grain with no added yeast. What is to complain about...except they come from California and Minnesota and a loaf is a minimum of $3.85. My family can and does eat a loaf of bread at the typical breakfast, we often have one or two baguettes or a focaccia with dinner (this would not be a good time to get into food guilt, blood type diets and goodness knows what else). Being of middle class status with seven mouths to feed we cannot really afford to spend at least $54.00 a week on bread alone so I get to make it.

I had a really neat grain mill and it lived a healthy life for over ten years, it died about a year ago. This was a lucky thing because it gave me the chance to find a really cool local grain miller (local is in the next state rather than the next town….none of us really expects a grain miller in each town or a grain mill in every home).

The War Eagle Mill was listed in a really nice cook book, "Bread From Sourdough to Rye" by Linda Collister. I checked out their Web site and found a stone mill with all organic grains, they have really good hard wheat, white whole wheat, white and yellow corn meal, spelt, buckwheat as well as many mixes,( which I have not tried). They are really nice about sending things without shipping costs if you buy a lot and their flour comes in these really nifty cloth bags. If I were half the homeschooling mom I should be I would have had the kids making aprons and napkins…they would have to get off their iPods for that.

The quality of their flour is really nice and they recognize me as someone who has ordered from them a few times. They usually send a hand written note on the bill, they even call me a member of the frequent flour club.

Comments (2)

Dear Vera;

One State over must mean Alabama... Where is the War Eagle Mill? We make all our own bread, I got tired of paying so much for the good bread. There is not much local going on here, I live near Montgomery Alabama, and even the farmer's markets sell stuff from California. Anyway, I'll keep reading your blog for any ideas you have. Thanks,
Kathy

Posted by Kathy Quinn | January 20, 2008 4:01 PM

Dear Kathy,

The War Eagle mill is kitty corner to us in beautiful Arkansas. Their home page is here. Their web site is nice, it looks like a fun place to visit.

Best regards, Vera

Posted by Vera Schabicki | January 20, 2008 7:44 PM