h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I started buying some of my groceries from a new food shop that opened a week or two ago. It's closer than the one I've been going to and it's a co-op. As a matter of fact I belonged to it several years ago when the former Mrs Gosho and I lived further north because that's where their original branch shop is. But they've just opened this new one. Being a co-op and very right-on there's lots of organic stuff , lots of stuff that's not organic but good quality and lots of local stuff

And their beer prices are pretty good too

But I don't think that's bread flour in the bulk bin marked organic bread flour. The first two loaves I've baked with it have come out awful. I got a good rise on the first ferment, but the prove has been slow, sluggish and lacklustre, and there were big bubbles all over the top of the dough both times. When I decided to put it in the oven because I figured it wasn't going to rise any more there was no oven spring at all. House bricks both times.

The flour is the only thing that's different, so after only the smallest amount of deduction it seems the likely culprit. And this morning, when I went to the other place, which I'll probably only go to once every two weeks now, I didn't get any of *their* bread flour because I hadn't baked this loaf yet and made the connection.

Oh bother.

are you going to take the bread and ask them about it?

Its not glutin free flour or soemthing?

The organic, hippy, 'whole foods' place, here in Cambridge where I get all my flour now, has a whole ton of glutin free stuff in it... But, there 'ordinary' organic flour (no idea what brand it is, just very plain packaging, probably made for htem by some localish mill), produces the most gorgeous crumb structure (I won't be going back to the cheap flour I used to use now...)

I got a small bag of spelt flour (wholemeal I think), last time I went (plus the 3 KG bag of their white), and plan on making some really* tasty spelt rolls with it

I just have to do my 'Money reality check' when I'm in there; I look at the prices, and my first thought, is "gosh, £2+ for a 1KG bag of flour, that's expensive...."... then all I have to do, is think how muh I spend on fags, or beer, and suddenly, I just reallise it ain't expensive.... I mean, 1 KG of the spelt flour, just under £3, I can easily make oo, 16 or more big* rolls.... that's nearly a weeks bread, and to buy, rolls, ready made, even cheapish ones... (and buying them ready made wouldn't get anything as authentic or tasty as I can make )

With one bed flats at £300,000 plus, and some one bedf flat rents at £2K PM, I do have to oftne remind myself, that money isn't quite the 'value' it once was

It shouldn't be gluten-free - it's labelled as bread flour. And the price is pretty good too. The organic plain flour at the other supermarket is... hmm, I can't remember exactly, I think it's somewhere around $1.50-$2.00 a pound, but their bread flour (non-organic) is only $0.49 a pound. The co-op's bread flour is organic, and I think it was around $1.00 a pound. Much less than I was expecting.

I still have a couple of pounds of it left over. It's possible that someone put the wrong flour in the bulk bin. The bread's still edible, it's just a bit heavy. Maybe next time I'll knead the dough by hand instead of with the machine and see if that does anything to it.

The flour I get, is, I think, about £5 something, for a 3 KG bag.... which is... err..... about 6 LB I think... so a bit under a quid a LB, I think... (though I may have worked that out totally* wrong ) I can carry two 3 KG bags back in my rucksack at a time, which is handy, though last time I just got the one 3 KG bag, of the bread flour, and the 1 KG bag of the spelt, for a change

I keep all the ziplock bags from the stuff I buy in the bulk dept. like flour, split peas, sultanas, so I checked the prices on the labels that you print and stick on the bags when you weigh them out. The bread flour is indeed $0.49 a pound, but the organic plain flour is $2.49 And that must be cheaper than the stuff on the shelf in bags because I often do a price comparison between bulk and packaged if the supermarket has both, and bulk isn't always cheaper.

ahh... they just have big paper bags (for the 3 KG and 16 KG bags of the bread (white) flour (and the wholemeal too)), the spelt, is annoyingly, in a selephane like bag..... so I'm goign to wait until I can do a batch using the whole 1 KG of it, as it ain't ever going to stay in teh bag once opened and I've not really got any tubs big enough for storing flour in; the closest I've seen for sale, are so* expensive, and, actually its easier to store a bag of flour, than for me, to try find space for a big tub full of flour.... which would probably have to end up in the studeo/computer room, lurking with the slow cooker, amongst all my guitar/recording/cables/microphones and computes and stuff

I keep my flour in a couple of plastic containers I got from work. They're the ones they get the peeled garlic cloves in and the hold about 3-4lbs of flour, I think. One for bread flour, one for plain flour, one for wholemeal, and another one I haven't decided about yet.

It was a hell of a job getting the smell of the garlic out of them. Bleach, rinse, bleach, rinse, leave out in the sun, bleach, rinse, leave out in the sun

I'd prefer something not plastic, but they were free and they're just the right size. They'll do for now.

The closest thing I found, was either specifcally for bread, to hold about 16 KG, which were really* really* expensive so they were no good; the second best thing I found, which were a decent size also, and a lot* cheaper, were tubs designed and sold for, putting dried dog/pet food in; I figure they'd be pretty good, and they're so* much cheaper than the actual* ones designed for flour but... I really don't have anywhere to store them... wll, no where actually near the kitchen

Ok... I'm ing.

There's no puppies here. Just bread talk.

We don't have* to talk about bread...

In fact... we can talk about what ever you lie.....

actually.. here... lay down on this couch.... tell me what's on your mind

Definitely no puppies. Kittens are welcome though

That's why I was so surprised by the thread title.

Better?

Look it up

I always used to be a cat person... totally so... but in recent years, I think I've turned into more a dog person...

Spent ages, last week, sitting in the cematory (nice wildlife area, in an old Victorian Cematory), was sitting down with William, having a cigarette, and this gorgeous* red setter came up... stroked it for ages (and got covered in its hair!), and chatted for a long while to her owner... I mean her 'human'... I must move to a place with a garden, so I can get a dog, and a cat, and a goat called Derick, and some chickens and ducks...

But baron almost the whole microcosm of life is here, sub plots of heartache,the changing ect times (the former misses gosho, an organic food shop, times when beers was cheaper, the amount of fraud going on in supermarkets, the value of money now and then ) then is the way flours weighed Lbs visa v Kgs. housekeeping tips on storing flour, and a lot more if you can read between the lines . for instance two legs, by sitting in the cemetery " having a cigarette" is so aware they might kill him one day he go there to save time and effort in taking him there when they do.

I'd not thought about that, with the cematory Mind, I don't think one can book a plot in it anymore, as its an old Victorian one (I think a few new burriels happen, for people who've got existing family plots, with space left, but not for any newcomers)

Sadly, the pub, where I was to have had my ashes scattered, on death, has been demolished

OK... fine... UNED.


But, back to that original thread title... The etymology suggests the buyer thinks he's buying a piglet, gets home and finds he's bought a puppy instead. OK, so no bacon in the larder later, but still... It's a PUPPY!

Right, but no bacon in the larder. That's, no bacon. Or ham. Or a Sunday roast. Or chops.

I'm entirely failing to see a benefit here.

NO bacon?!

*dashes off to fridge in a state of utter fear*

Don't panic... there is* bacon