Interesting article on continuing flour shortages.

[Arwen Thebard]

We have also been vacuum sealing our flour (as we do with rice) which seems to be working well. Paper bagging it into smaller Ikg amounts and sealing in food grade buckets with oxygen absorbers.

[Arwen Thebard]

Another thing on our radar is the wheat harvest this year is very low.

We are surrounded by crop fields and this years wheat harvest was cut 3 to 4 weeks ago, very early, and at a very short height. The local farmer tells us the lack of early season rain and a pressure to supply his contracts led to his decision to cut the crop while only at knee height, it will also lead to a shortage of straw as I imagine.

Reports of poor harvests from Canada, the USA and China for various reasons could all lead to flour shortages so it might be worth stocking up while you can and prices are stable.

[Lemne]

I bake my own bread without a lockdown so need a constant supply. I was going to buy bread flour in a large sack but the thought of weevils made me change my mind. In my thinking if there are weevil lavae in the flour then it is going to be in all my flour from that sack. I decided to buy individual bags from different suppliers, from different shops and vacuum seal them in the bag. More expensive in the short term but I'm happier this way that if one goes i should still have the rest. I'm also looking at getting the milling attachment on my mixer and buying the whole grains which keep forever. I'm stuck between that and looking for a hand powered grain mill. The annoying part of that is that the grains are more expensive to buy than the finished flour which doesn't make sense to me.

[hobo]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -union-nfu

UK facing worst wheat harvest since 1980s, says farmers' union
NFU predicts yields could be down by a third as extreme weather hits crops

[diamond lil]

I think this is a good time to go to bed and not get up until next June. Had enough offit

[Stonecarver]

We have also been vacuum sealing our flour (as we do with rice) which seems to be working well. Paper bagging it into smaller Ikg amounts and sealing in food grade buckets with oxygen absorbers.

Vaccum sealed bags.jpg

I prefer to pour out 1.5kg lidl flour into 20kg large mylar bags within a 20l bucket and 2000cc oxygen absorber. After compressing flour with a large dinner plate. Managed to get around 16kg flour in the bucket. Have vacuum sealed some 1.5kg flour and put them in really useful boxes for shorter time scale

[Yorkshire Andy]

while only at knee height, it will also lead to a shortage of straw as I imagine.

I'm getting that info too from farmers usually at this time of year we are over run with baled white wood shavings... and can't shift them till late September / early October at the earliest peaking in December... Usually run out of "summer stock" around Christmas

Put it like this half of what we hold as winter stock is going out this week /next week . Got 5x artic loads booked to go out this week alone it's going to get interesting.....

[Arwen Thebard]

while only at knee height, it will also lead to a shortage of straw as I imagine.

I'm getting that info too from farmers usually at this time of year we are over run with baled white wood shavings... and can't shift them till late September / early October at the earliest peaking in December... Usually run out of "summer stock" around Christmas

Put it like this half of what we hold as winter stock is going out this week /next week . Got 5x artic loads booked to go out this week alone it's going to get interesting.....

Excuse my ignorance Y A but what are "baled white wood shavings"?

[Yorkshire Andy]

while only at knee height, it will also lead to a shortage of straw as I imagine.

I'm getting that info too from farmers usually at this time of year we are over run with baled white wood shavings... and can't shift them till late September / early October at the earliest peaking in December... Usually run out of "summer stock" around Christmas

Put it like this half of what we hold as winter stock is going out this week /next week . Got 5x artic loads booked to go out this week alone it's going to get interesting.....

Excuse my ignorance Y A but what are "baled white wood shavings"?

https://www.sca.com/en/wood/Thoroughbred/


Also used by poultry farms pig farms etc

[redskies]

This just wandered by on my twitter feed, so thought I'd share it here.

https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1297439151827165185