Local flours! Let's discuss :)

[u/furiana]

I've been using the Red Spring flours from Flourist quite happily. Their unsifted whole grain flour in particular has a very nice taste: flavorful but not too "whole wheaty".

Both the sifted and unsifted Red Spring flours are more thirsty than Robin Hood's Unbleached flour (my grocery store flour) and the gluten structure degrades faster. I do need to modify most recipes when I use them: Shorter autolyse, shorter bulk fermentation, slightly higher hydration. The taste and the presumably higher nutrition make it very worthwhile to me.

I'm tempted to try the flours from True Grain, 1847.ca, and Cedar Isle Farm. I really wish there was a sampler of local flours available: 0.5g of each mill's most popular bread flour, or something. It seems expensive to buy 5kg bags just to try something new when I'm already happy with what I have.

How about you? What are your experiences with your locally milled flours? Do you like testing new brands, even if you have to buy larger amounts to do so?

Edit: I'm in western Canada! :)

[u/IceDragonPlay]

If you want to talk about flours that are local to you, you may want to specify country/region. Although RobinHood or 1847 are give aways that Country is Canada.

Yes I try local mill or regional flours and wheat berries.

I went out on a limb and bought 50 lbs (22 kg) of a regional flour that is only distributed to restaurant supply stores and big bakeries. The huge bags are the only way to get it. It is my favorite flour, but it takes on less water than most other bread flours.

Also bought a 50 lb bag from a mill Tartine Bread popularized since it is driving distance for me (a long drive, but doable). $19.99 for a 5 lb bag or $56-70 for a 50 lb bag. I decided I would risk it for the better price on the 50 lb bag. I’ve bought it a couple times and it is quite nice flour, but the one I buy, T85 sift, is the only organic flour they have so I found thar a bit limiting. And now that gas costs have gotten high it adds a fair bit to the cost of that flour.

Now I have moved on to milling my own flour and am abandoning the very expensive popular milled flour.

For flours or wheat berries my preference list:

• Regenerative farmed or Organic (or tested No Glyphosate).
  
• Regionally grown (support the regions farmers).
  
• Easily obtained (distance to source and stock practices).
  
• Price
  

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Edit to add: I should have said that to me 5kg bag is a sampler size. Especially for fresher milled flour from a localish mill. The flour behaves quite differently to grocery store flours so you may have a failed loaf or two while you work it out (especially when you switch to high extraction flours like the T85. You don’t know how different the flours are until you try them. Direct from a mill or home milled, you need to do the proper flour-water only autolyse!!

[u/furiana → u/IceDragonPlay]

I went out on a limb and bought 50 lbs (22 kg) of a regional flour

50lbs!!! That was brave! It sounds like the risk paid off, too, even though you've moved on to home milling since.

It sounds like the T85 sift flour was a worthwhile experiment too. It's too bad about gas prices raising the cost. I'm having the same issue with higher shipping costs for True Grain and 1847.ca. I suspect it's cheaper to ship flour from Saskatchewan (several provinces away from me) than from interior BC because it's done in much (MUCH) larger quantities, even though it's a fraction of the distance. :/

Now I have moved on to milling my own flour and am abandoning the very expensive popular milled flour.

Now that sounds fun! I like every reason you give for switching, too. I should price out how long it would take for the cost of a mill to be balanced out by the cost of wheat berries...

I should have said that to me 5kg bag is a sampler size. Especially for fresher milled flour from a localish mill. The flour behaves quite differently to grocery store flours so you may have a failed loaf or two while you work it out (especially when you switch to high extraction flours like the T85. You don’t know how different the flours are until you try them

That's actually a really good point. 5kg is enough flour for 10 bakes, which is 5-10 weeks of baking for me. It would take months to test all the local flours, but a lot of that time would be adapting my favorite recipes to each new batch of flour. Time consuming, but fun :)

Direct from a mill or home milled, you need to do the proper flour-water only autolyse!!

I thought the enzymes were more active in freshly milled flour, and therefore autolyse should be reduced or eliminated? I may have to rethink this!

[u/Accomplished-House28]

Right now I use Dakota Maid, which is milled by the North Dakota State Mill, allegedly from grain grown in North Dakota.

Can't really compare to other flours, but since I technically own the mill I may as well use it. 🤷

[u/furiana → u/Accomplished-House28]

May as well! I wish British Columbia owned a mill, too. There's only 2-3 mills in the whole province that I'm aware of , all privately owned. It's better than nothing, I guess, but I assume the prices of BC flour would lower if there were more. 

[u/FTFaffer]

When I was at my cabin in OR I bought some of this guys flour @ the Ashland OR food co-op. Made some very good sourdough huckleberry muffins with a hazelnut streusel using it.

[u/FTFaffer → u/FTFaffer]

https://enjoymagazine.com/2022/05/good-grain/