Getting more flour out of KAF
Due to the amount of bread I'm baking, and now considering my local farmers market, I think I could handle 5-10 50# bags of KA Sir-Lancelot flour. We all know that to purchase this on line would be cost prohibitive. I contacted KA to find their distributor in my state who I then contacted.
The short of it is, they're not interested in selling flour to those of us (general public) who are more than a home baker, who bakes for ones own family, but short of a deeply in debt struggling commercial bakery.
Considering these tough times, I even offered to pay cash for my order to no avail. So what does it take to get a larger amount of flour, a registered business name and tax I.D. number?
You would think KAF and its distributors would encourage such entrepreneurial spirit and support those looking to step out ahead.
Why does KA sell their AP flour in 25 pounds but not their bread flour? I don't think it is just the cost of shipping; it seems to me that there is a marketing issue here.
--Pamela
It would be interesting to really know what is going on with KAF with their pushing of AP vs. Bread Flour for us bread bakers. My guess and it is only a guess is that under current market conditions they are making more money per pound selling AP than they do selling their great Bread Flour. I have noticed that besides having almost all of their yeast bread recipes call for AP rather than Bread -- you can almost not find the Bread in thier sales flyers anymore. Doesn't matter to me since I buy their flour locally, yet it still seems strange that when you have one of the worlds best Bread Flours you push AP.
Dave
I was looking to get maybe 100lbs a month, but no go. I think you have to go to a distributor and the closest one is four hours away.
I really think that's an unfair and unkind analogy.
Supply contracts are common between distributors and suppliers. Did you offer to enter into a contract with the distributor, to purchase X hundred pounds of flour each week or month? Since distributors sell at wholesale prices to commercial ventures, and you plan to be selling bread, you should consider that option. Yes, a d/b/a certificate and tax ID (both easy to get - you could DIY) would probably help to obtain wholesale prices.
Or check into another mill. Heartland Mill sells its strong bread flour in 50# bags. You could contact them and try to arrange something.
At 14.2 protein, Sir Lancelot is a high gluten flour. What kind of breads are you baking that you would need 500 pounds?
You can buy WW and Rye from Flourgirl51 for less than half the cost, delivered to your door. I haven't had any trouble finding a restaurant supply dry goods outlet that would sell to me in 50# bags. I don't use that much weight but depending on where you live I would be surprised if you can't find a grocery or bake shop that wouldn't agree to let you buy from them. Just make sure you pay them a little extra and be a good guy about it.
Eric
As a business owner, I know that it is absolutely easier to deal with distributors when you have a business name and tax id versus being the "general" public. That is just the normal practice with all wholesale distributors that I have dealt with. I suggest you try that route especially since you will be selling bread and then the "doors" will open easier for you. Plus as Dan mentioned, they sell in bulk and make very little off of the small transactions. I have also found there is usually a minimum order of $100-$500 depending on the distributor. Best of luck, I'm sure you will find a way.
Thanks to all for your comments and encouragement. Yes, the KA AP and bread flour are available at my local supermarket. I just purchased a couple of 5# bags of the bread flour for $5.83 per bag.
As for the Sir-Lancelot, I find that works the best for me and is the most consistent in rise, oven spring and overall finished product batch after batch. I have recently tried the White Lily bread flour resulting in poor oven spring. I've also tried the Hi-gluten Dakota Mills bleached flour. This worked with satisfactory results, but I'd rather not use bleached flour. This was the flour I was able to get from a local bakery for $20 per bag out the door. No paper work required, billing, etc. etc. I loaded it myself, paid cash with the offer of a graturity for his trouble which was refused. He also said I could order anytime as long as I put my order in on Monday morning for Tuesday morning pick-up. I was also able to purchase a bag of Dakota First Clear from him for $20, and we all know how hard it is to find this flour type.
I'm going to make an assumption here by saying that most small commercial bakeries use the cheaper bleached flour. After all it comes down to the bottom line. I think that KA flour would be considered a premium priced flour to the commercial bakery owner and less desirable for that reason. This is probably why all the 50# bags of flour I see at Sam's Club, Gordon Foods, and Costco are of the bleached variety and less costly per bag.
Incidentally, I do live 13 miles from King Milling Co. I contacted them about purchasing flour in 50# bags, but they wanted to sell me a train car load only! Well, my quest continues for now.
I've not seen any high protein bread flour at the organicwheatproducts site, other than a sprouted flour for bread, but it's $3.25 a pound.
Organic whole wheat is available locally, including Golden Buffalo. I just got an email from an organic food co-op advising that organic bread flour isn't in their UNFI catalog.
The Heartland Mill organic strong bread flour seems pretty reasonable, but I've not yet checked into shipping charges.
LindyD, would you mind telling me which co-op sells it?
The Grain Train You can order it. The number is #484576, 25 lbs. Brad is the guy you want to deal with. If you need his e-mail, let me know and I'll send it to you privately.
... but do they ask you to buy the whole load?
I'm not sure if you can order smaller bags, Mike. They do carry whole wheat in bulk at the store, but I'm not sure if it is Golden Buffalo.
When I was there, the bulk flour bins gave no details except "AP," "Rye" and "Whole Wheat." Not even the mill was identified or whether the flour was malted (it's not, as I discovered after baking with it). I've been told they are changing that and will offer more details on the flour bins.
I'd be happy to ask about the whole wheat during my next visit.
I just want to say this thread has been really informative. Thanks!
I believe I've found a source for Conagra Mills flour which is much easier to obtain than the KA flours. One in particular is the Conagra King Midas Special. Unfortunately, the Conagra site gives no specifics about this flour in terms of protein, ash content or whether it is bleached or unbleached. I was wondering if there were any Conagra flour user on the forum that might know the answers to these questions. A search of this forum on King Midas gave no hits. Thank you in advance for the help.
While looking at information on Wheat Montana, I happened upon the site of one of their distributers.
www.dutchvalleyfoods.com
If you find you way to their flour section you will find a whole series of Conagra flours and by clicking on "Nutrifacts" to the right of each flour bag you will get complete flour data. King Midas Special is a bleached flour, 12.6 % protein they also give moisture content, ash and falling number.
Conagra also has a Seal of Minnesota Unbleached at 12.6 % protein, and a Producer Flour -- bleached but High Gluten at 13. 4% protein.
Lot of data on this site on various flours. Some of the information is better and more detail that others. All seem to be PDF's scaned from data sheets (best) to just a scan of the nutrition label off a flour bag (poor).I have never tried to buy from dutch valley foods, but we used to have a retail outlet here that got some of thier product from dutch valley. They purchased in bulk and repackaged. They got to advanced retirement age, couldn't sell the store and just closed it. I miss them.
Dave
Dave,
I have ordered from DV in the past without any trouble. Unfortunately, the flour was $20+ a bag and shipping cost was $30+. It's really not cost effective if you do a lot of bread baking.
I was not so much suggesting to purchase from Dutch Valley -- I am sure they are a fine company, but that their web-site had detailed data on most of our flours of interest. KAF, Conagra, Wheat Montana etc.
The whole key is finding someone in your area buying a major shippment of flour from which we can buy a 50 # bag or two. Shipping flour by UPS rather that truck freight is a real killer. For me I am still way ahead to buy KAF in our local market at $3.48 per 5 pounds for their bread flour.
On the other hand if you have a local group that can buy a major shippment and then break it up it would be a good deal. One thing on my list do is to see what one of the major food distributors in our area carries and purchase from them through a friend that has a retail shop. (Buys weekly, truck makes a regular run through our rural area.)
Dave
That's why I can never buy anything online. Can you imagine the shipping cost to Canada? The cost is just one thing, a lot of these companies won't even ship outside the US.
Dave,
The idea of a local group makes a lot of sense. I've never seen anything on this site that attempts to show or list all the bakers per a geographical area. It would be nice indeed to have this information so that we could pool an order, thus opening doors that are otherwise shut to us individuals. Good idea.
I wound up at a pizza forum while looking for flour information, which led me to this link at General Mills.
I figured it was worth a shot for you to find your local rep and make contact. I've heard only good things about All Trumps.
Hope it works out.
I'm located in West Michigan. I was just able to secure a source for the Gold Medal flours. I purchased 2 bags of the 50143 All Trumps flour to try. The 50143 is unbleached and unbromated. Per the Gold Medal site, there are four versions of the All Trumps flour. Depending on the prefix code number ordered, you can get it either unbromated,bromated, unbleached, bleached, enriched or malted.
I'm also looking into getting a few bags of their 53395 Full Strength flour which is 12.6% protein. I believe this to be their commercial version of Bread Flour. Also unbleached and unbromated.
I'm finding that a little extra digging in these tough times does provide its rewards.