Covid-19 Discussions and Stories

[BakerAunt]

I also enjoyed reading the article. However, I think that no history of King Arthur Flour is complete without mention of the Baking Circle (both the Old one and the Newer one). It was sad to see that community be dismantled.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Interesting article. It's good that KAF can keep their flour so consistent with seven different mills making the flour.

It was also interesting to read that there was never a wheat shortage because I remember (mis-remember?) reading an article that said that the upsurge in buying happened during the shoulder season between winter and summer wheats so inventories were low.

[Mike Nolan]

It was mainly a channel issue. From the time wheat is milled into flour until it shows up on retail shelves can be several months. The flour has to be aged, bagged and shipped, all of which takes time.

The first part of the year is also the traditional down cycle for millers, it's when they do a lot of maintenance.

Wheat stocks reported by the USDA remained in the 'normal' range during that time period. I wonder if shipments overseas were down, though.

[BakerAunt]

The Pandemic has brought back the Cathy comic strip. I just found it and read through all, beginning with this one:

https://www.gocomics.com/cathy-commiserations/2020/03/15

Recognize any of these situations? 🙂 For me, some of them apply to retirement!

[Joan Simpson]

I enjoyed reading the comics BakerAunt and some apply to me too.

[skeptic7]

Love the comics!

[Joan Simpson]

I made Target run today.I found several kinds of KAF flour,wheat, white wheat and reg most was $3.39 for 5 # bags.I found plenty of toilet paper,milk was $2.49 a gallon,sugar 10 # for $4.69.Everything I wanted was fully stocked,yay!20 rolls of Scott toilet paper was $13.99

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Joan Simpson.

[BakerAunt]

Those are good prices, Joan. KAF AP was $4.99 at Kroger on Tuesday, and the BRM whole wheat was $4.99.

[Joan Simpson]

BakerAunt I was a happy lady.

[cwcdesign]

Target almost always has KAF cheaper than Kroger/Harris Teeter Black t my local one usually have not has AP.

The director at the senior community where my mom lives does weekly (sometimes more often) updates about the numbers and how they are creating protocols to keep the community safe. There are still no cases of COVID there. He also printed a screen shot from the Weather Channel (of all places) that showed that our county has 250 confirmed cases, up 37.3% since last week.

It is absolutely crazy at work; the Island is overrun and there are way too many people who are running around without masks and then look at us weirdly when; we say we don’t take cash and think we’re going to return to “normal.”

Thank you for letting me rant

[BakerAunt]

Question to Ponder: If a store can post a sign saying "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service," why cannot the store also post a sign that says "No Mask, No Service"?

Our idiotic Chamber of Commerce is going full steam with a fireworks show over the lake, even though the Town Council, which has canceled all big events, did not want them to do so. However, the DNR controls the lake, not the town council, and so the chamber barged ahead with its plans. Almost every place around here canceled fireworks in order to prevent people from congregating. Guess where they will go to watch fireworks?

[kimbob]

Unfortunately, there is no cure for stupid.

[RiversideLen]

Back in March, when the Covid hit the fan, home freezers became scarce. In April I decided I wanted another freezer, a small one, primarily to store my baking supplies to ensure I could stock up and they would store well. Big box stores showed out of stock for all the freezers in the size I wanted, 5 cubic feet or less, maybe the bigger ones were out too but I didn't look at those. A Chicagoland store, ABT, showed everything back ordered but at least they were letting you place an order with the understanding that delivery would be delayed. Not a problem, I can wait a month or so, this isn't critical to me. So I place an order for a 3.6 cf GE. Over the next two months I received emails from ABT saying GE was informing them that delivery of that model would be delayed. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the model went from back ordered to discontinued. I decided I probably wasn't going to get that one and looked for alternatives. They had several 5 cf freezers also on back order (5 cf is the largest I am interested in because of space considerations). So I asked them which would be available first, a GE or a Frigidaire. They told me the Frig would be available in the middle of July and the GE sometime in August. So I moved my order over to the Frigidaire. A few days later I got an email from them saying they had it in now and to schedule delivery. I scheduled it for this past Saturday as that was the first available date. So early Saturday morning I got woke up with a phone call from the delivery driver saying he was on the way and would be here at 8 a.m. Sure enough, promptly at 8 a.m. they were here and by 8:10 my new freezer was in place and humming, yay!

After the freezer reached temperature I gathered my flours from various storage places to put in the freezer. I also took inventory of what I had and the best by dates. I figure I have enough flour to last about a year. But I did come across a bag of Semolina from KAF that has a best by date of this past April. As long as it looks and smells OK, it should be good to use, right?

[skeptic7]

Congratulations on your new Freezer! Now you can stock up on butter too.

[BakerAunt]

Congratulations on the new "home" for your flour and baking supplies, Len. Your persistence with the freezer paid off. The semolina should be fine, unless it smells "off." Either refrigerate or freeze it. You should be able to use it with no problem in your signature bread.

In the winter, we leave our apt. over the garage at a low temperature, so I can have bags of flour there on the nice chrome shelving I bought. However, once it begins to warm up, I move it all to the second refrigerator/freezer we have in its kitchen. Now, if I could just talk my husband into a small additional freezer....

I do not see the pandemic ending anytime soon, and I expect it will be worse by late summer and fall. My husband and his cousins have canceled the family reunion that was to occur in Michigan in October, and we lost our deposit because the owner did not want to work with us or perhaps to apply it to renting the same place in 2021.

I am in the process of stocking up where I can, and trying to think six months to a year in advance. I have made yet another order to Bob's Red Mill because they had a couple of items on which I was low, or in the case of the beloved barley flour, might run low in the future.

[Author]

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