Friday, December 11, 2015

Flour, I never understood you until now

I'm glad I bought a mill and decided to give it a try. For 40+ years I've been eating food made with flour. Growing up we ate breads and pastries made with white flour. All this time, I thought I was tasting flour, but really I was missing the whole picture. After I got married, I switched to wholewheat bread and learned to like it. For many years I ate and enjoyed Mathews wholewheat sandwich bread.

The thing is, what I was tasting wasn't really wholewheat. It was the sugars and other flavors Mathews added to the bread. When I started going to Rose32, I was amazed at how awesome the breads are. Not just the french baguette, every loaf had a rich and complex flavor. Frank's loaf, local loaf and other whole grain loafs were simply amazing. I attributed it frank's skill, recipe, yeast and oven.

Baking with home milled fresh flour has really opened my eyes. Even though I don't have Frank's skill, yeast or Italian stone oven, the last 2 loafs I made have a bit of that richness it was missing. There are many things I like about modern technology and how it's improved the standard of living, but often I feel we too detached from nature. Eating freshly milled flour is making me see how detached we are from the soil. The richness our planet provides is there, but we've largely ignore it to the detriment of every creature living on this rock.

Part of me is angry and wants to scream "how the fuck did we get here?" Another side is thankful for people like Montana flour and make their products available. I really wish US culture would change and people would stop and notice how lucky we are. We live on a planet that provides us with soo much. It is our duty to treat this planet with greater respect.

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