Helping out

I love it when helping each other seems to come so naturally. It's not a forced thing and everyone benefits. Sometimes I think I benefit the most. Like with this exchange of goods.

Over the last month a neighbour and I have been trading bread. She makes lovely uniform rolls for me with mixed grains. And one day her daughter ran over with warm pan bread flavoured lightly with curry and tumeric and cumin. It was so good.

In return, this plaid bag goes back to her house with heavier whole wheat loaves. I can't make uniform buns, and she likes my homeground flour and wants to move in a healthier direction with her breads. She seems to think I know what I'm doing with grains.

Frankly, I have gotten tired of trying to work with 100% whole wheat flour. The stuff from my mill is so totally different from whole wheat from the grocery store. I've been fooling around with it a bit too much -- soaking the flour, including some sourdough starter, even sprouting some of the grain. Doing that makes me understand the grain a bit more, but it has also meant some erratic success and failure in the actual loaves.

I had even run out of white flour finally and I realize now that I'll probably never be have a totally whole wheat household. I love the crackers and other baked goods that don't require a lot of gluten, but I was pretty happy to buy some white flour again and make some fluffy white bread this week. I brought a loaf to my inlaws today, but together we made it disappear over two meals. I'll have to remember to bring some on our next visit. I didn't mean to eat my gift.

Last week I was also gifted with a lot of food from my mother, couriered to us by my sister. Just a few things, she had said. It turned out to be about 70 pounds of wheat berries, potatoes from her garden to last a few weeks, and tons of peppers and cucumbers. All grown fairly locally for my mom, so I appreciate the freshness of that. And the taste is awesome. I have wheat to last a long time now, and I will be stretching it by adding refined white flour for it's gluten content. Thanks, Mom!

The white flour is once again from southern Alberta too and that makes me happy. Thanks for the Ellison Mill tip, Apple Jack Creek. The price was a bit cheaper than from Costco for the same product, and I hope the mill itself ends up with more more in it's hands than if I went the Costco route.