Covid-19 Discussions and Stories

[Mike Nolan]

My wife says the local grocery store has roped off their bulk bins, but they have set out some packages of the bulk items that are pre-weighed and are at the bulk price.

[BakerAunt]

I went to the Bob's Red Mill site. Lots of products are out of stock, still. However, if you click on some of the flours, there is a message that they should be back in stock April 26.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi. I posted this in a separate thread. Should probably have posted it here or in the WaPo thread. This is from BBGA where someone posted a an online map of small, local flour producers. The ones in New England still have flour but being small suppliers they probably do not have the consistency of KAF or BRM. So each batch is an adventure. But I may start buying from them just to support them.

[BakerAunt]

I've been reading and hearing stories about the farmers and animal people who produce for restaurants and schools. They suddenly have food that they cannot sell, and a lot of it is being dumped (milk) or plowed under because they cannot afford to pick it without having a place to sell it.

I wish that there were a group assigned to try to deal with diverting some of that waste to people in need, not to mention to the groceries. I know that it is complicated to try to change supply lines, and there will be lost food, but I worry about how it will impact us over the months ahead, and if it will make it more difficult for the restaurants to re-start.

[aaronatthedoublef]

One of our local restaurant distributors is selling boxes of produce. It's for pickup only. An enterprising local college student has started a delivery service with these produce boxes and is adding in bread from a local bakery and dairy and meat from a local farm.

Down in Williamsburg VA where my in-laws live my wife found a local farm service that will deliver much of what her parents need to them on a weekly basis. If you know any of the people who run local restaurants they might be able to point you in the right direction.

I think where we live some of this is probably technically illegal but people have other things to worry about now.

My friends have closed their restaurants except to cater to the local hospitals which they are doing gratis. It's a way to keep going, keep some people on the payroll, and do some good. And the takeout business is probably to unpredictable.

I think people under-estimate just how important restaurants are to our community. In addition to feeding us and being the site of many celebrations they are exceptionally generous and some of the first to step up and give of their time, energy, and money.

[BakerAunt]

Most of the restaurants in our little town have continued on with take-out, and with the people coming in to their second homes to ride out the pandemic, which is a problem in other ways, the restaurants at least have a customer base. One restaurant has limited itself to weekends, but one coffee shop has hours every day, as do the other three. Only one is completely shuttered.

To second Aaron's other point, before the pandemic hit, two of our restaurants did fund raisers for the local Boys and Girls club. Two also stepped up and did fundraisers when a family of six lost everything due to a house fire. The local coffee shop has also been generous to local causes.

[chocomouse]

I live in a pretty rural area, the nearest restaurants and grocery stores are about a 25 minute drive north or south, and in those two area are many chain stores as well as local family owned places. Almost all the restaurants and coffee shops are doing curbside pickup for take-out, although quite a few have reduced hours, and almost none have closed. All the other retail stores ("essential" only are allowed to be open) are doing call/email your order for curbside pick up. And some organizations, such as fire departments (volunteer) are picking up curbside and delivering to the homes of the elderly, at-risk, etc. residents. Also, residents are making large donation, like $50-100 each, to restaurants to have meals delivered to fire, police, hospitals, etc. Excess food goes to schools, (making and delivery meals via school bus, to all students under 18 in their district), and to the food banks and homeless shelters. Also, many towns have "Road Captains" who contact all residents in on their assigned roads on a regular basis, and manage "Give help - Get help" lists. My sister is sewing masks for everyone on her road, and putting them in bags hung from her mailbox at the end of her driveway for neighbors to pick up. I'm not sure a lot of this would work in more urban areas, but it's amazing to watch the daily creativity and generosity of townspeople. We no longer have large dairy farms in our area, but it's sad and confusing to read that farmers are dumping milk, yet the dairy section in the local grocery store was almost empty when I went shopping on Tuesday. No cheese, except the imported brands in the deli case, almost no yogurt, cottage cheese, milk.

[BakerAunt]

So far, it has not been difficult to get milk where I live. I always buy it at the CVS, as it has a closed refrigerator. The local grocery has open shelves, and I've had their milk go bad faster. I used to buy buttermilk there, until they stopped selling 2-quart containers. When I'm desperate, I buy the overpriced 1-quart.

We so far have plenty of cheese, but the yogurt that's available is not what I prefer to use in making my own yogurt. I prefer yogurt that does not use starch to thicken it.

I also heard that some farmers are destroying eggs that were slated to produce future chickens because there would not be the market for them. In Florida, one grower dismissed the pickers for yellow squash because the company that usually takes the squash notified the grower that it had no place to sell them, and so could not pay the grower, who in turn, could not pay the pickers.

Our local school busses are also delivering USDA food to students, but that was food already in the pipeline.

I'm glad that Chocomouse's area has organized itself. I wish that more of that were going on at the next level.

[BakerAunt]

I had a Bakers Bucks from KAF that was expiring today. I emailed asking if I could get an extension, as they are out of a lot of what I would buy, but I hadn't heard back by yesterday evening. I assume they are just far too busy. I'm a member of the Bakers Rewards program, so I needed to have at least $35 in products, so that when the $10 coupon comes off, I have the required amount of $25 to get free shipping as a BR member. So, I went to the website and found three items that I could buy and knew I'd use: another jar of Vermont Cheese powder, the baker's blend of dried fruit, and a 2 lb. bag of their Pompanoosuc Porridge, which I figure that I can eat when the steel-cut oats run out and could also use for bread.

I actually have two unopened jars of the cheese powder, and am getting down on the opened jar, but at the rate my husband eats cheese crackers, I'm not worried about using it, although I am worried about running out of whole wheat flour.

[BakerAunt]

Here's an article on how some farmers, who have been supplying restaurants, are working to find other markets for their produce and meat.

https://www.foodandwine.com/news/farmers-csa-direct-to-consumer-contactless-coronavirus?did=514550-20200419&utm_campaign=faw-the-dish_newsletter&utm_source=foodandwine.com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=041920&cid=514550&mid=32548332410

[BakerAunt]

I went to the Bob's Red Mill site last Wednesday, saw some items were in stock (but limited to two each) and placed an order for 2 bags of whole wheat flour, 2 bags of wheat germ, and 2 bags of steel-cut oats. They seem to have a flat rate of $9.99. They are limiting order to two of each. I don't know if that includes cases, so I did not do any of those. According to the UPS tracker, the order will arrive tomorrow.

I've yet to hear from KAF on the order I placed on April 13, which I only placed because I had Bakers Bucks expiring, and I could not get an answer from KAF on whether that expiration date could be extended. The website showed all three items in stock. I'll give it another week to see if I hear about shipping, then I may need to call.

We did our Tuesday grocery run today. I saw a bag of unbleached Gold Medal flour--and they rarely carry unbleached. Even though it was $4.99, I bought it; with our Tuesday Senior 10% discount, that at least makes the price a bit better, but I could kick myself for only buying one bag at $2.99 when we last went to Kroger on March 13. I noticed that the local grocery seems to be running low on some items, so I went ahead and bought more canola and grapeseed oil.

Meat shortages are supposed to be coming due to the closure of meat packing plants where there were major outbreaks among workers. The one in Logansport is among them.

We had to re-schedule our dog's veterinary appointment, as the vets are taking turns coming to the clinic, and we wanted to get the vet we've been seeing; she is good with herding dogs, as she has some of her own. The vet practice has been sending staff members out to the car to get the animal, but that won't work with our girl, who won't even let my husband take her for a walk without me, and we've had her almost six years. And she is terrified of the vet clinic. Last time we went, she hid under our chairs in the exam room, and the vet was initially puzzled that there was no dog present, perhaps not realizing that 40 lbs. of cattle dog could do that. If the vet agrees, I'll wear a mask and go into a back room with her so that she can get her yearly exam and shots. Otherwise, we will have to postpone it.

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

[RiversideLen]

BA, I placed an order with KAF on the 8th and just got the shipping email today, so expect about a 20 day wait for it to ship. I really don't understand that because they are out of most flours etc so how many orders can they have?

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Len. I hope that they have flour again before my next Bakers Bucks expiration date in June.

I'm assuming that KAF is having to work with a greatly reduced staff. I noticed, however, before Covid-19 hit that KAF has warehouses in more than one geographical area; I was surprised in January that some of what I ordered did not come out of Vermont but from out west and down south, and a couple of those orders took longer than expected. So, the pandemic may have exacerbated an already existing problem.

[Italiancook]

An acquaintance scored me a 10 lb. bag KAF AP at grocery. No 5 lb. bags in AP, only 5 lb. bags organic AP. I'm relieved to have 10 lbs. Now I can feel comfortable baking.

[chocomouse]

My understanding of how KAF operates, from friends who are employee-owners, is that just as KAF works with a small number of farmers who grow the grains, the farmers ship to a small number of mills. After the grains are processed and packaged at the mill, they are shipped to several distribution centers. From there, they fulfill customer orders. The issues are complex, and change from week to week (even day to day) and can differ depending on the distribution center. At the KAF store in Norwich, most of the administrative staff is working from home; however I learned the other day that some of them are now helping man the phone lines, to answer the questions of folks who have never before done any baking. Also, we can call the retail phone number, not the ordering number, to order and pay, and then pick up our order curbside in a couple hours. So far, the local stock of items has been very good; they've been out of a few things, but only for a few days at at time. We are not hearing that "this item is back ordered until June whatever". The shelves in our local stores, however, are pretty much empty of KAF flours, SAF yeast, etc, just like everywhere else.

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