Loved reading the article Aaron.

French (and European) farming is much more of a cottage industry than in the US, especially for things like corn or wheat. There are more strains of wheat grown, and the wheat could almost be described as artisinal.

I'm not sure the small US mills are going to be that much different from the bigger ones, because they're all getting pretty much the same strains of wheat grown on similar ground.

What the bigger mills can offer (and I include KAF in that category) is consistency. A common thread on the BBGA forum is this: "I just switched from brand X flour to brand Y flour, and my breads aren't coming out the same, how do I fix this?"

Prof. Calvel didn't always have kind things to say about North American wheat, but he still thought a skilled miller and baker could produce good bread from them.

What I find interesting is how many articles and books I've seen that talk about how much bad bread is being produced, even in France. (And I'm not talking about the mass-produced factory breads, which are almost uniformly awful.)

Triticale is an interesting and challenging grain. The breads I made with it at around 15% triticale were good; most people who tasted them preferred the triticale breads over similar loaves made just with wheat. The ones at a higher percentage started to show some structural effect from the triticale grain, which has weaker gluten proteins. The pasta I made with it didn't hold together very well, but it was edible.

Triticale adds a nutty taste that reminds me a bit of durum wheat or semolina; given that 75% of its DNA comes from rye (according to the geneticist at UNL), it really doesn't bring in any rye notes at all.

I've still got around 6 pounds of triticale berries, and Steve, the guy who grew it, said I can have more whenever I want. (Might have to wait until UNL is open again, though.)

Bob's Red Mill has triticale berries in their webstore, but they're currently listed as being out of stock. I'm not sure if I've seen them in stores, but BRM still makes a number of products I haven't seen in stores here.

I've read that using "old dough" is a technique that many European bakers use. Sometimes they use some old bread. I have a hazy recollection that Germany limits how much old bread can be included in a batch of new bread.

You can cook and eat triticale as a cereal, but to use it in breads you'd need to grind it into flour.

'Old dough' is similar to sourdough, though I think with little or no lactic acid bacteria. You can refrigerate old dough for a few days, but a commercial baker would just set a bowl of it aside for tomorrow. If I remember the article, Bob was making his dough a day ahead of time, which means he was getting a lot of enzyme action as well as yeast growth.