Flour Trip--an article by Dayna Evans
“‘[People] want the vegetables fresh. They want the salad fresh … They even bring fresh roses back home.’ So why do we settle for purified enriched white flour that’s been languishing on the shelf?”
“Can I buy local chicken? Can I buy local honey? But nobody is thinking local flour. Flour has just always been there.”
“One global crisis was enough to prove that many of the systems we rely upon are dangerously fragile. More regional control could give some of that [security] back.”
“[W]hole-grain flour is more nutritious than products made with white flour; whole-grain foods are more filling and are easily digested by people with gluten sensitivities; the flavor, the taste, the every little thing is better with non-commodity flour.”
“‘This year, the hard wheat that everybody grew had a little bit of a cinnamon smell to it,’ he explained. ‘It’s just the variety, the climate, the water, the soil, it’s what happened this year. Last year it didn’t taste like cinnamon. Next year maybe it’ll taste like lemon. It’s in your dirt, it’s in your environment.’ The flour, as a result, was special.”
There are many reasons to rethink flour and the regional grain economy. Check out one author’s reconnaissance and reflections. Flour Trip by Dayna Evans
