February 2, 2017 - 8:43am
Where do you buy your flour in bulk?
Hey Everyone,
I live in Austin Texas and there is not a huge bread culture here (at the moment). There is a brand new mill that opened Barton Spring Mills but it only does wholesale.
I do of places like Central Milling. Can anyone recommend some other options?
I am looking to buy some speciality flours like Type 85 flour for my breads and Durum Flour, start experimenting with einhorn and maybe emmer if I can afford it.
Thank you!
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I buy my bread flour at Costco (here in BC it's Rogers Silver Star commercial bread flour in 20 kg bags), and my whole wheat flour (20 kg bags) from a local farmer. Sometimes I get a 50 lb bag of organic unbleached AP flour through a local artisan bakery; that's a good place to try to see if you can make some arrangement with them (i.e. they buy it from their wholesaler and you then pay them back for it). I also get 20 kg bags of organic grains (spelt, hulless barley, rye, Kamut and Red Fife wheat) from a guy who drives a truck around the Western Canadian provinces, buying direct from organic farmers and then selling to the local bakers (see Vancouver Island Grains and Milling site, if you're interested). I then mill my own flour (hand-operated Wondermill Jr.)
For anything else, I buy bags of it at Bulk Barn. Apparently they will also sell you a whole box / bag of whatever size they get it in, at a reduced price. At least my local Bulk Barn will.
Lots of different options to try!
Fellow home baker over here in Boerne TX. I bought a Komo grain mill and I buy bulk grains from Pleasant Hill Grain up in Nebraska; good prices and the grain comes in storage buckets with oxygen absorbers pre-packed in the buckets. Home milled flour is a bit tricky and half the fun is experimenting.
From Heartland Mill in Kansas. My T65 from L'epicerie in NYC.
hester
Hi Ogi, I'm also located in Austin. I'm not a big fan of "bulk bins", such as the type at Whole Foods. I've had bad experiences, ending up with bugs in some of my grains that were purchased in that manner. Having a lot of grain about, I try to be extra careful about not bringing those kind of pests home. If you haven't been to Natural Grocers, give it a try. I think there are two locations in Austin. They sell small quantity bulk, but pre-packaged with their own label, both flour and whole grain, if you want to mill your own. The bulk flours are all kept refrigerated. They also carry some commercial brands, and have more variety than I have found anywhere else. They sell "Golden Buffalo" flour, which I believe is milled by Heartland Mill. They don't have Durham flour, but if a few of us bakers request it, we might could make that happen! ( or if you know of somewhere that sells it locally, please let me know) marybeth
that natural grocer's refrigerates its bulk flours is like gold in my book with wole grains.
Hi did you ever find a place? I'm North of Austin a little and have a hard time finding good bread flour in bulk. The stuff Costco used to carry was pitiful, now they only carry AP flour.
Ogi, I see that Barton Springs Mill is now open for retail on Fridays and Saturdays, 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. I plan to check them out as I live between Oak Hill and Dripping Springs. Thanks for bringing them to my attention!
Let me refresh this question. I go through about 20 lbs of bread flour per month in Austin, and I would LOVE to find some local and economical supplier of bulk bread flour available for pickup in Central Texas. 50# sacks would be ideal. Online sources are somewhat pricey, and their shipping charges on top of that are astronomical. As it is now, my only option is HEB bread flour, in 5# bags. Not bad stuff, actually.