What with the yeast shortage, I decided to attempt sourdough again! The last time J and I tried, we managed to make an acceptable loaf of bread, but we baked all of the starter into it D’:
Cook’s Illustrated has starter instructions, and we used this sourdough recipe.
We’ve made 2 loaves and 2 pizzas with this recipe so far with local, mostly-whole wheat flour! In a fit of emergency food-buying, we got a bunch of flour from Castle Valley Mill, a local historical flour mill (located in Pennsylvania, about 100 miles from NYC). Their bolted (big pieces of bran sifted out) hard wheat flour is amazing for making bread – lots of gluten!
Good to see Castle Valley Mill mentioned on here — I was thinking about buying some ingredients from there, but I don’t use flour fast enough to fill up the cart. Maybe I’ll once again attempt to convince one of my roommates to split an order with me.
I like their products a lot! The flour is nice of course, but if you think you won’t be able to get through it, they also have oatmeal, pasta, and heirloom-corn cornmeal (looks like popcorn is not available at the moment).
The map linked below has other local/independent grain suppliers across the US. I was pleased to see a number of cool options in the New England area. Castle Valley Mill doesn’t have everything you might want, but they do have free shipping~ 🙂
link: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1cUWaMy2sVg21iLzlhljJ0KyRkvzdLt9y&hl=en&ll=39.812030891457724%2C-93.80411604375001&z=4
Thanks for the link! I’ll keep it in mind when I start running low on food. The plan with roommates worked out and I ended up putting in a huge order 🙂 I actually found them because I was looking for oatmeal, but I’m now most looking forward to the blue grits.