My wife just gave me a good illustration of how "great" our economy is doing

[shadowknows69]

She started a new job with a local baker about 6 months ago. At that time the shop was paying $9 for a 50 lb bag of flour, it's been going steadily upwards and apparently her boss just got notice from his distributor that its now going to cost around $30 a bag. You think at least you'll be able to afford bread for your family right? Maybe not for long. Thanks George!

[villager]

1. Good lord, it's *tripling!?*

Time to investigate non-wheat flours, as well, perhaps...

[Warpy]

4. They are generally more expensive

only because relatively less is grown and milled.

It's certainly time to start learning how to bake your own bread if you go through a lot of it. Also, if you must buy bread, go to places with in store bakeries. Their product is generally superior to the mass produced balloon bread on the shelves. It needs to be kept frozen if you don't use it quickly, though, since it lacks some of the preservatives that keep the balloon bread from molding before it gets to the store.

Health food stores and food co ops sell flours in bulk. You can also pre order 10 to 50 pound bags if you have a large family to bake for.

Something tells me that all those wedding present bread machines that have been living out in the garage are suddenly going to start getting workouts.

[villager]

5. actually, my yard sale bread machine has been getting quite a workout for the past few months!

n/t

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10. I lost the paddle for mine

I think one of the kids accidently tossed it while cleaning the kitchen.

It's gonna cost me $20 to replace it, but it will pay off in just a few weeks.

[kestrel91316]

12. I'm just sad that people think they NEED a "bread machine".

I've got my own version: it's called "two hands", lol! And they came free with kestrel91316 v1.0.

[Warpy]

13. Well, my two hands are arthritic

so mine involves a Kitchen Aid mixer, the cheapest model out there.

If I'm really lazy, it involves the NYT lazy person's no knead recipe. Search the cooking forum for the link.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

16. I use a big Cuisinart.

I make my bread in that. Whips it up really fast and I don't have to wear myself out kneading it.

[Sal Minella]

14. Same here. My kids grew up on home-made whole-wheat bread and thought the styrofoam store bread was

wonderful stuff, since they had it about once a year.

[kestrel91316]

18. LOL, I grew up on Wonder Bread (RIP) and occasional

treats of Roman Meal (how incredibly avante gard). Soo I LOVE my homemade bread, and when I don't have time, Trader Joe's has good stuff.

[UpInArms]

22. ahhh - the kestrel91316 v1.0 is the

improved version of the 1976UIA.0001

:hi:

[salin]

25. I admit that it is sad...

but during my sixty + seventy hour work week, I have very little time - and very little "down time". I acknowledge it is a ($50) luxary. But I don't have the energy or time to tend to making the bread (which is sad, I admit) - but I make 1-2 loaves with the machine, at least once a week.

Once I realized how much bakery bread loaves I had started to eat, I started making my own. While prior to the machine, I had often thought about it - and then realized how many other things had to do in those few hours of down-time on the weekend. The machine allows me to make the bread and get things done around the house. So mock me if you must; I make only explanations, but no appologies.

[pitohui]

26. a lot of people should never eat bread at all

it's too bad people are brainwashed into this belief that they need to eat bread, a food that does not exist in nature and hence requires so much processing, whether by hand or by machine

considering the epidemic of diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and celiac disease in this country, getting away from bread is the best thing a lot of people could be doing for their health

bread's only purpose was as a cheap filler, these days, with so many people obese or with other health problems, why is it eaten at all?

haven't eaten bread in years, haven't missed it

[Johonny]

31. does not exist in nature

The bakery is a part of my habitat. What planet do you live on? (hint you are a part of nature)

[shadowknows69]

2. It's been going up incrementally

But this last jump was from 18 to 30. Quite a kick in the ass to a small businessman.

[Zoigal]

3. Good grief, what's going on?

Hope you're feeling better, Shadow. Miss your interesting posts. z

[Warpy]

7. Drought, increased energy prices

Wheat is now an energy intensive crop, from planting through irrigation through cultivation through harvesting and milling, storage and transport at all steps of the process.

Stocks in this country are now at the lowest level since the Dust Bowl days.

[RedEarth]

6. The price of wheat has gone through the roof

From what I've heard it's world demand and over the last several years farmers have switched from wheat to corn due to ethanol....might switch back to wheat now.

[Richard D]

8. I've noticed a lot of food prices have jumped up recently.

Things that cost a dollar a year ago now cost 2. But $30 for a bag of flour. Whew, that's bad.

[Lance_Boyle]

9. time to find a new distributor

Surely there must be some competition?

[LiberalEsto]

11. There's always crabgrass

Crabgrass is a type of millet, an edible grain. It was brought here by eastern European immigrants as a food supply. When they discovered how plentiful and inexpensive other grains were at the time, they tossed their crabgrass seeds to the winds. :)

[eppur_se_muova]

30. Interesting! That sent me running to Wikipedia ...

...which doesn't mention anything about a cultivated crabgrass in Europe, but did lead me to an article on white fonio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonio which is a crabgrass/millet cultivated in Africa.

(I was curious to see if this was teff, or a relative thereof. Just recently learned about teff. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teff )

[Historic NY]

15. When you can get more for corn for ethanol, then you plant....

corn. There is only so much a farmer or corporate farmer can produce and they will produce what gives them the biggest pay back. Its been going on for sometime as the available acreage is converted to growing gold (corn).

http://www.reason.com/news/show/120995.html

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060722/food.asp

[Neoma]

17. Oh great, this is just great...

Damn.

[SpiralHawk]

19. Thanks a pantload, republicon economic whizes

Another miserable republicon failure...

[Divernan]

20. Speaking of cake and the cost of food. . .

I used to occasionally buy one of those un-iced angel food cakes at the grocery store - I can recall when they were like $1.29. I looked at one last week - $4.95 ! ! !

I've been doing my own baking - and I must say my bread and muffins are scrumptious, in addition to being economical.

[Neoma]

27. Eh?

Not computing what you're saying.

[HughBeaumont]

21. Prices on everything - milk, paper products, spice, bread, etc

Just last week the toilet paper I bought at BJs a year ago for $12 is now $17.99.

All bread went up in price since last year.

[MountainLaurel]

23. Another illustration

I am a public librarian in a small Maine town. It used to have lots of paper and cloth mills but now is mainly known for its cheap monthly rentals and the methadone clinic.

We carry state tax forms, and a great deal of our time from February through April is spent directing people to them and explaining why we don't have federal forms. (The IRS, in a misguided attempt to get people to file and/or print forms out from online, stopped sending them to us for free several years ago. The agency is apparently under the impression that everyone in the U.S. has access to a personal computer and is proficient enough with it to navigate to the appropriate forms. This is why librarians would like 15 minutes in a locked room with the IRS administrator and a baseball bat.) This year, however, we started getting people asking about tax forms as early as the end of December. I've been wondering about this for the past month or so, and the answer hit me last night. I think people are desperate to get any refund money they can in order to try to make ends meet for just another month or two. It's been a bad winter so far, and oil bills can run $500 a month or more. That tax check might be the only thing keeping people fed or cars patched together for a little bit of time.

[Snarkoleptic]

24. Wheat futures on the CBOT have been going through the roof.

The current price of wheat is up due to high fuel prices and the skittishness of the wheat futures.

Some factors are-

Freakish weather is causing winter wheat to have diminished yield expectations. The oddball freeze/thaw whipsaw weather depressed yields because the rooting systems are impaired.

Farmers have been moving toward corn to satisfy our ever increasing thirst for ethanol.

Farmers have had their costs skyrocket as well. They use large quantities of diesel, anhydrous ammonia, and other goods that are greatly affected by increased transportation-to-market costs.

[Xenotime]

28. un-fucking believeable What a dark time we live in.

[leftofthedial]

29. It's worse than you think

I used to get my favorite rotgut pretty routinely for $18 a jug. Now it's up to $28 for a smaller jug.

If I have to go off my "meds" someone's gonna pay!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

32. Cookies are getting smaller and smaller

I used to buy oatmeal cookies at the Stater Brothers market in SoCal. They used to be normal-sized. Now, they've shrunk down to the size of half dollars for the same price as before. I noticed that two weeks ago and found it strange. It's not an earth-shattering revelation and I admit that cookies are not the staff of life like bread, but it made me wonder what's going on. And baked fruit pies are getting smaller, too, and two weeks ago went from 3 for a dollar to 2 for a dollar.