Stocking up for Ploetziade 2
Since the 2nd phase is 'Ancient' grains that include Farro (Emmer) Einkorn and Kamut..... off to Whole Foods to hit the bins I went. I've never seen Einkorn in the bins but they have Kamut and Emmer. When I go there I was shocked. They still carried Kamut in the bins but many of my usual grain favorites like Farro, whole Oat and several others were gone! I was heartbroken since this is the only place you can get them in town.
While I was checking out I mentioned to the checker, when she asked if I found everything I want, that no I couldn't and that many of my favorites were gone from the bins and as a bread maker who grinds my own flour.... it was disappointing. She immediately got on the pager and called a guy up to the register to see if he could help. I'm glad she did.
He said that they also have whole grains in two other places in the store, the pasta section and the health macrobiotics section so off we went. In one they had 2 kinds of Hayden mills grains and flour. This is the mill that just opened up in Tempe where the owner has tried to get local framers to grow grain for him that are native to AZ and locally sourced like Sonoran White, Desert Durum and some other grains that are hard to get like Farro.
These Hayden mill grains were not cheap. Whole berry Farro was $8 for a pound and a half and the ground Desert Durum Semolina was $10. For some reason they didn't carry the Sonora White. I bet it is cheaper at the mill too. We also found a pound if Farro berries from Italy for $4 and a pound of Einkorn from Tuscany for the same price. All of them are just ungodly expensive but you can't bake with 'Ancient Grains' if you don't have any. It is great to find the Desert Durum since it is the best semolina I've ever seen and my source for it had dried up at the pasta factory in Glendale,
Now we are getting into $10 bread just for the dry ingredients:-)
Happy Ploetziading