Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:22:42 GMT -------------- BEGIN bread-bakers.v108.n010 -------------- 001 - "S&R Ash" Subject: Re:Fruit Flies Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:09:39 -0600 I cannot ever thank you all enough for the recipe for the fruit flies and gnats. We were overran with them and last year someone here gave the advise of the vinegar and dishsoap. I keep several jars around the kitchen and storage areas now in the seasons we see them. They get in the jars and die. I change the jars out several times and am always AMAZED at all the dead flies. Sue Ellen ~ in Kansas --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v108.n010.2 --------------- From: Ellen Lee Subject: KA sourdough starter Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:10:19 -0400 In case there is any confusion about traces of beef in King Arthur's sourdough starters, I asked KA's customer service to clarify. The response follows: >Thank you for your email. Item # 1040 the La-4 French Sourdough >Starter does contain traces of beef. This is a dry starter that >comes in 5g packet that is enough starter for about 12 loaves of >bread. Item #1522 our fresh sourdough starter does not contain >traces of beef. This starter is the fresh sourdough starter that >you have to feed about once a week. Please let us know if we can be >of any further assistance. Happy baking! > >Erica Miller >Customer Care >King Arthur Flour >Baker's Catalogue, Inc. >1-800-827-6836 >customercare@kingarthurflour.com --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v108.n010.3 --------------- From: lobo Subject: Re: beef in KA sourdough starter Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:32:23 -0600 Maybe they make beef bouillon in the same mixer. It's like M&Ms Plain pkg saying there may be peanuts in them ... they mix it in the same mixer as the kind with peanuts, or so I've heard. Lobo --------------- MESSAGE bread-bakers.v108.n010.4 --------------- From: Mike Avery Subject: Stock up! Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:26:42 -0500 Hi, I was touring a really neat bakery today here in Dallas. The owner was telling me about flour prices, and they are scary! They have pretty much tripled since the start of the year. For wheat, for rye, and more than that for semolina. If you can afford it, and if you have the storage space for it, stock up on your favorite flours NOW. The full effects of the price hikes haven't made it to the grocery stores, but that happy situation is unlikely to continue for much longer. Even more important than stocking up on flour, if you like pasta, stock up. The price of semolina flour has gone up far more. It was over $160 for a 50lb sack. This is like the ONLY ingredient in most pastas, and the price will have to go up. There are a number of factors in the price hikes. Some of them are not really amenable to short term fixes. Some of them are beyond anyone's control. Here's a few of them.... A number of wheat farmers have switched to growing corn for ethanol - the government subsidies for this ill conceived project are just too attractive for some farmers to say no to. The pendulum could swing back the other way, but most observers say that by itself, this would not have been a major issue - there would have been enough acres of wheat being raised if it hadn't been for the rest of these issues. Next, the dollar is in free-fall, dropping faster than (oh... just think up your own tawdry comparison here). This has caused a year long... Rise in fuel prices. It takes fertilizer to grow the stuff (in conventional agriculture, anyway), fuel to tend it, and fuel to move it and process it. Next, the China and India have quickly growing middle classes who want more wheat products. Pasta. Bread. Increased demand and a dwindling supply ALWAYS causes problems. And they have lots of dollars to spend. And finally, the crops are bad this year, both in quantity and quality. This is above and beyond the reduced acreage. As a result, stocks of wheat are reaching record lows, and some industry spokespeople have said it will take 2 to 3 consecutive good years to bring things back to normal. If you grind your own flour, stock up on wheat berries, they last a LONG time. If you are a whole grain baker, you might consider starting to grind your own flour. Whole grain flours have a limited shelf life, and they will go rancid fairly quickly. How quickly? It depends on storage conditions, but figure 6 months or so. The clock starts ticking when the grain is ground into flour. Wheat and rye berries have a very, very long shelf life. What about white flour? With the bran and germ removed, refined flours have a much longer shelf life than whole grain flours. Figure between 2 and 3 years. In both the case of whole grain flours and refined flours, you can extend their shelf life by freezing the flours. Remember, a full freezer is pretty cheap to run. If you don't have one, look around for a used chest freezer - they are cheap to buy, you can put more into them than in an upright, and they are cheaper to run than an upright freezer. Best wishes, Mike Mike Avery mavery at mail dot otherwhen dot com part time baker http://www.sourdoughhome.com networking guru Skype mavery81230 wordsmith A Randomly Selected Thought For The Day: Computer programmers don't byte, they nybble a bit. --------------- END bread-bakers.v108.n010 --------------- Copyright (c) 1996-2008 Regina Dwork and Jeffrey Dwork All Rights Reserved