Looking for awesome bread flour

I’d like to bulk buy bread flour that is more than just Organic, preferably no-till / regenerative. So far my research has only found  https://shepherdsgrain.com/, which looks and sounds perfect except I’m not in Oregon. I’m on the NJ / NY border and I can’t find anything local. Any recommendations for bread flour that’s more than just organic? Thanks.

hey edward

Welcome to permies

Here is a company i wish was closer to me. However they seem to be close to you!

https://lakevieworganicgrain.com/

You can find more about them on that website or i believe try this search Youtube search for Mary howell-martens

Not exactly close but Central Milling ships and they have a wide selection of flours both organic and not.  Their pizza flour is amazing.

Just to add to the mix.....

"Hard red and hard white wheat is best for yeast breads. Soft wheat is best used in cakes, pastries and other baked goods, as well as crackers and cereal. Durum wheat is the hardest of all wheat and makes the best pasta."  --  www.wheatfoods.org

Add to this that North Dakota is a top US producer of hard red spring wheat......-AND- has the only state-run mill in the nation!  [Gasp!......Isn't that 'socialist'?!!.... ;-)   .... ] >>>  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Dakota_Mill_and_Elevator#:~:text=The%20North%20Dakota%20Mill%20and%20Elevator%20is%20the%20largest%20flour,facility%20in%20the%20United%20States.

Try your next bag of awesome bread flour from Dakota Maid:  https://www.ndmill.com/product/dakota-maid-organic-flour/

(Well.......shoot!  Looks like the Organic offering is only the all-purpose flour and not the bread flour.  My bad!    
PS,  the author of this post claims no investment in, nor compensation from, the ND State Mill.)

you seem to know quite a bit about flour. im trying to learn and maybe even try to make bread. anyway
King Arthur is the only whole wheat flour I can get without driving more than 2 hours. is this flour any good? ive got two bags and it makes pretty good pancakes.

Thank you all for your replies.

Jordan - I’ve been lurking for a while. I’ve contacted Lake View organic and hope to hear back.

Alex, thanks for the recommendation - it’s pizza night tonight. I didn’t realise there was flour for pizza! I’ve been making pizzas for twenty years and use the same sourdough recipe I use for making bread. I normally just divide an one half makes a loaf and the other pizzas.

John - that’s great information. I notice the ‘local’ link in my original post now links to an article about local foods. I had read that in ‘Grow a better world’ which is what brought me here in the first place. The East Coast doesn’t look like a good place to buy local flour. Ideally, I would find flour from grain grown on a regenerative farm in my local store. As that’s possible, I’m happy to settle for buying a 50lb sack and get it shipped - the lesser evil. When I think of local, it’s what I often hear referred to as hyper-local - which for me is anywhere I’m happy to cycle to. I’m also more interested in keeping money local where it is recycled locally rather than it leaving the system. I’m sure that must be part of the holistic permaculture world, reusing a resource.

Bruce - I’m currently using King Arthur and very happy with the bread it produces.  Good luck with your bread making adventure.

bruce Fine wrote:.....
King Arthur is the only whole wheat flour I can get without driving more than 2 hours. is this flour any good?

Many whom I talked baking with approve much of King Arthur flour..... I've enjoyed it for baking and my wife likes it for making seitan.  

Edward N., at the risk of a midwesterner claiming Vermont to be 'East Coast', King Arthur is headquartered there I believe.....so it may at least be somewhat locally milled, even if their wheat comes from many locations around the U.S.  Their mission statement at least reads very positively also..... https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/about/mission-impact

Edited to add this link for New Jersey flour:  https://www.rivervalleycommunitygrains.com/products

I haven't found anything appropriately local, but in terms of amazing flour I really like Sonora flour from Hayden Mills: https://www.haydenflourmills.com/shop

There's a mill in PA called Castle Valley Mill, they ship for free to the northeast: http://www.castlevalleymill.com/ and they had good stuff, especially their grits. I the grain mostly comes from PA.

Thanks John - my local grocery store stocks King Arthur and I grabbed a bag. I’m very pleased with the results and I’ll be using it from now on.


Start of the day - flour, water, salt and the mother!


First of two loaves fresh out of the oven

Thanks Jackson - I just had a quick look and they have some fine produce. Cheers.

Just discovered Azure Standard from the Quitting Amazon thread.

Going to order flour - they have a great selection

https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/category/food/flour/22474

Edward Norton wrote:Just discovered Azure Standard from the Quitting Amazon thread.

Going to order flour - they have a great selection

https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/category/food/flour/22474

I just started ordering from Azure Standard this summer. I really like their products though I'm finding my bread from  their bread flour is turning out more crumbly than I usually make when I use King Arthur or Bob's Red Mill.

Have you used it yet? How is it working for you?

I have been impressed with Sunrise Flour Mill. I think they qualify as ‘more than organic.’ C

I use the all purpose organic King Arthur flour for my sourdough bread baking and so far I have no complaints! I also make the best chocolate chip pancakes I’ve ever made with my sourdough “discard” created with this same flour.

https://carolinaground.com/
This is an amazing woman owned mill with excellent flours. I highly recommend them for those of you near Asheville NC

Check out Maine Grains

https://mainegrains.com/

They source their grains from Maine farmers. Some of which are reviving heritage grains consumers haven’t had access to for years.

Jenny Wright wrote:
I just started ordering from Azure Standard this summer. I really like their products though I'm finding my bread from  their bread flour is turning out more crumbly than I usually make when I use King Arthur or Bob's Red Mill.
Have you used it yet? How is it working for you?

My order arrives today, so I haven’t tried it yet. It’s going to have to be something special to beat King Arthur. I’ve been using it for a few months and the bread is amazing.

I also ordered some grains to grind, something I haven’t tried before. I’ll have to report back on a side by side comparison of all three.

E Sager wrote:Check out Maine Grains

https://mainegrains.com/

They source their grains from Maine farmers. Some of which are reviving heritage grains consumers haven’t had access to for years.

That’s a fantastic resource and I love their story. Thank you!

Edward Norton wrote:

Jenny Wright wrote:
I just started ordering from Azure Standard this summer. I really like their products though I'm finding my bread from  their bread flour is turning out more crumbly than I usually make when I use King Arthur or Bob's Red Mill.
Have you used it yet? How is it working for you?

My order arrives today, so I haven’t tried it yet. It’s going to have to be something special to beat King Arthur. I’ve been using it for a few months and the bread is amazing.

I also ordered some grains to grind, something I haven’t tried before. I’ll have to report back on a side by side comparison of all three.

My dad grinds his own grain for flour and his bread is amazing! I've heard that it's best to let the flour sit for a day after grinding, something about developing more gluten, but my dad just uses it right away and his bread is nice and soft.

https://conservationgrains.com/

She is in Montana...sourcing from local growers. I really enjoyed talking to her when I was looking for bulk flour to move my business up this way. :)

She gets some pretty cool things in that might not even be listed on her site.

I will preface this with the fact that I live in Canada's bread basket, so I am both spoiled for lovely local grains and also know nothing about New Jersey/New York flour. BUT, we have a grain CSA here so I searched for grain/flour CSAs in New Jersey and came up with a few potential options...

Red River Valley Community Grains:
https://www.rivervalleycommunitygrains.com/ourroots
https://www.rivervalleycommunitygrains.com/products

Edible Jersey also has some interesting resources:
https://ediblejersey.ediblecommunities.com/shop/csa-guide-jersey (a few of these CSAs list grains/flour as one of their crops)
https://ediblejersey.ediblecommunities.com/shop/tidbits-local-wheat-local-flour

Community Supported Garden at Genesis Farm also has a CSA and sells additionally surplus through a store, including a whole wheat flour and wheat berries. They seem to be working on biodynamic gardening?
https://csgatgenesisfarm.com/

I'd also ask around at farmers markets or if you have any restaurants/bakeries that promote their use of local supplies. Food people love other food people usually. Hopefully this helps! I know your original ask was months ago, but can you ever have too much good bread?

I usually get mine from Janie's Mill.  

www.janiesmill.com  

They have an excellent selection of both flours and whole grains if you want to grind your own.  Mostly grown in the Midwest.   I did an interview with them for my podcast, and I was quite impressed by their commitment to caring for the land.

Jenny Wright wrote:

Edward Norton wrote:Just discovered Azure Standard from the Quitting Amazon thread.

Going to order flour - they have a great selection

https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/category/food/flour/22474

I just started ordering from Azure Standard this summer. I really like their products though I'm finding my bread from  their bread flour is turning out more crumbly than I usually make when I use King Arthur or Bob's Red Mill.

Have you used it yet? How is it working for you?

I've ordered from Azure for a while, and for bread I use the aforementioned Central Milling all purpose bread flour:

Central Milling flour

It works great.  I make mostly traditional sourdoughs, but also a fair amount of no-knead standard yeast breads.  And lots of flour tortillas and also pie crusts.  This is an all-purpose flour that really is.

Then for rye bread, I mix the Azure Rye flour with the Central Milling.  Actually, what happens is my recipe calls for all the rye to be in the starter - so I'm making a rye starter with the Azure Rye flour, and then using that soured flour for the rye bread.  It's excellent.

When King Arthur goes on sale on Vitacost, I sometimes stock up on their bread flour. It can help a bit added to other flours.