Wow, has our world changed in the past few months! Because of the coronavirus, shelter in place has been established in many places around the world, including my state here in the USA. I see a lot of businesses, either being temporarily closed or changing how they operate to adjust to the new guidelines that have been set. Where I live, we have a ‘shelter in place’ order, and so those who can work from home, others are being furloughed, and unfortunately, some have been laid off. I’m seeing all of these events happening at my job.
Naturally, with the number of people that have been furloughed or laid off, we see some shelves within grocery stores empty. It’s cheaper to prepare your own food at home. Also, restaurants are closed for sit down meals (although some places are offering takeout services.) Grocery shelves are depleted of heat and serve meals, bread, flour, sugar, and yeast are also absent from the stores that I frequent. For home bakers, this is a new experience. The past several weeks, when I’ve ventured out to grocery stores, I haven’t seen any bread flour or all-purpose flour. Also, yeast is missing. Do you want to know what isn’t missing at the stores where I shop? Produce! Since that’s mainly what I purchase, I’ve been able to buy what I want. I won’t need to buy any product from the store once our garden is ready for harvest.
Back in March and early/mid-April, this didn’t affect me at all. I keep a sizeable stash of flour on hand. It makes sense with the amount it gets used in our home. However, I did start to get a bit antsy this week. You see, in addition to baking for my family, I’ve also been baking for family/friends. Because of this, my stash has dwindled more than normal. A few days ago, I looked in the freezer and realized that I only had ten pounds of bread flour left. I use several other types of flour also, and those are fine. However, bread flour is the main flour that I use for bread baking. However, baking for others (along with baking for my family) has added up quickly. So, instead of using three-five pounds of flour weekly, the minimum I’m using is eight pounds of flour.
When I was at the store this past weekend, and earlier this week, I’ve been looking to purchase a few bags of bread flour to replenish my stash. Nope, not happening. Those shelves are BARE. So, earlier this week, I went online and purchased 50 pounds of flour. To be honest, it’s something I’ve been toying with for a while. I store other dry ingredients in bulk, so why not flour also? King Arthur is the flour that I use for most of my flour needs and so it’s what I ordered. King Arthur’s ‘Special Patent Flour’ is their bread flour.
I ordered the bread flour from Webstaurant. I must say that I was impressed with the turn around time. It arrived yesterday.