What happened to all the Flour?

[Deleted]

The shelves have been bare of flour for weeks now—where has it all gone? Does anyone know what’s happening?

 

[isladogs]

Home baking...

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I saw an article on a USA national news show that a lot of people who are stuck in quarantine have taken to home activities - repairs, cleanup, and ... baking. Some parts of the USA have no flour on the shelves because people here have begin making bread, cakes, cookies, and similar constructive activities. My wife is not a bread baker but she has increased the number of cookies she bakes. Most of them go to the kids as "care packages from Grandma" but still, it is an increase in flour usage.

In particular, I hear it is hard as heck to find "sourdough" flour in the San Francisco area. A couple of the bakeries in the are report that folks are looking to them to buy flour, even though the bakeries get their supplies in bulk. But they tell of ordinary housewives asking to buy flour from them and then walking out with a 50-pound sack of all-purpose flour over their shoulder.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Meat might be next in the US.

 

[Deleted member 147267]

taken to home activities - repairs, cleanup, and ... baking.

It's bizarre - "stay at home and do stuff".
OK, I will fix things. Wait, I need paint/glue/wood/whatever... Can I go to the store and pick my own wood or choose a paint colour? NO.
OK, I will bake/cook/clean. No flour, can't find certain veggies (we ran out of potatoes around here at the beginning of this); all the cleaners are gone.

I'm stuck on my second guitar project because I can't buy wood (there's no way I'm going to buy on line and let someone choose that for me).

 

[isladogs]

According to Radio 4 yesterday, that's exactly the reason why. Many people baking bread for themselves and cooking with young kids off school
There's plenty of flour available if you are willing to get a 16kg sack but the smaller 1.5kg bags are now difficult to get.

 

[Minty]

No, I don't accept that explanation, it doesn't make sense.

There's got to be more to it than that.

Nope, it's definitely that.

A good friend bakes all the time. She said straight away that even the "artisan" baking shops were overrun with people they had never seen before coming in for anything they could get their hands on.

Same for eggs, eggs are in pretty short supply everywhere locally for the same reason, as is demerara sugar, which I need for coffee. Badly.

 

[isladogs]

Update, I rang my brother, a farmer who has contact with a company that make flower, Dove's Farm. And it is just the demand, if you look at the Dove's Farm website:- they are out of stock on everything! All due to home baking, it's unbelievable!

Ah .... so you believe it when your brother says so .... but not me!

 

[Minty]

that make flower, Dove's Farm.

What types of Flowers ?

(asking for a friend obviously)

 

[Gasman]

Same for eggs, eggs are in pretty short supply everywhere locally for the same reason, as is demerara sugar, which I need for coffee. Badly.

When we had the sugar shortage in the 70's I just stopped using it, in tea and coffee, and hardly touch it with anything else..

 

[isladogs]

Well I'm still not 100% sure, I would like to talk to the horses mouth so to speak, talk to the actual producer(s) of flour. I'm afraid I don't go with "Facts" which appear in the public domain without any backup. If you can backup this public domain "Fact" with something concrete, then I'm all ears. Just assuming that there's no flour because people are buying it for home baking is a bit naive.

Perhaps this time I really should be offended. I assumed nothing.
I've both read that explanation and heard it on more than one factual programme on the radio backed up by both producers and farmers.
Demand for flour has significantly increased in recent weeks and supplies haven't yet caught up.
As I have already stated, there is plenty of flour available as long as you are willing to buy large sacks intended for bakeries etc.

Perhaps assuming I just made it up is a bit naïve.

 

[Minty]

When we had the sugar shortage in the 70's I just stopped using it, in tea and coffee, and hardly touch it with anything else..

I don't have milk in coffee as a long time ago we had a machine that used powdered milk and I didn't like it and was sure it put about a stone on me, now it's just the beer.

 

[isladogs]

Suggest you stop digging a hole...

 

[Minty]

Is it like kneading?

 

[isladogs]

A serious response this time...
I regularly make my own sourdough bread using flour I buy at my local community shop where I'm a volunteer.
It still has white bread flour but nothing else because the suppliers can't get hold of anything else,
I know as I've asked.

Without trying to be big-headed, my sourdough is as good as anything I can buy.
There's something very satisfying about the whole process.

 

[Deleted member 147267]

There's something very satisfying about the whole process.

I wanted to try making that at one time. When I read how lengthy the process is, I gave up on the idea of making my own.

 

[isladogs]

Just needs a bit of advance planning
Start it one day by feeding the sourdough starter.
Mix the ingredients the next day and leave it overnight.
Finish it the next day.
Overall preparation time about the same as any other home bread making.
However the end results are definitely worth the effort.

Getting hold of sourdough starter 'kit' might be a bit tricky at the moment though...

 

[Gasman]

I wanted to try making that at one time. When I read how lengthy the process is, I gave up on the idea of making my own.

I'm the same with beer

 

[isladogs]

Now with homebrew (beer or wine), I can definitely say that what I can make is nowhere near as good as anything I can buy. So I no longer bother

 

[Gasman]

Now with homebrew (beer or wine), I can definitely say that what I can make is nowhere near as good as anything I can buy. So I no longer bother

I used to make wine out of kits. When one on my employers was having an open day, he asked me to bring some as backup, in case they ran out of the 'good stuff'

Turned out one nosy person discovered my bottles, had a taste of one and then proceeded to tell everyone, with the result that my wine was all gone, with the good stuff still remaining.

Beer, I could never get it as nice as you get in a bottle/keg. Drinkable, but not as nice.