Quick mid-day, mid-week post to share some breakfast stuff happening around here this year. Not sure if I had mentioned this previously on the blog, but John and I stopped buying milk at the beginning of the year in an effort to lower our carbon footprint. We used to eat muesli with berries and milk every morning, and we switched to toast with almond butter and bananas to cut out the milk. Cutting out berries that were being brought in from far away was a bonus. And we found bread we really liked baked at West Town Bakery in Ukrainian Village, and sold through our local Amish Healthy Foods store. It was a very smooth breakfast transition until…
West Town Bakery closed at the start of the coronavirus stay-at-home orders. We tried a loaf of supermarket bread but have not found off the shelf loaves substantial enough to prevent a massive energy drop (and hangry moment!) by 10am. We decided to make bread, but then couldn’t find whole-wheat flour anywhere.
Others are noticing the flour shortages too, and John ran across this article that explains why. Highlight:
Another threat is that those nations and others will take steps to protect their own food supplies. Last week, Kazakhstan, a major exporter of wheat flour, and Vietnam, the world’s third-largest supplier of rice, suspended exports of those products. Because the United States no longer holds national grain reserves, significant parts of the food supply could be jeopardized should food protectionism accelerate.
I don’t really like the line about the US no longer holding national grain reserves!
So back to the breakfast situation, we could go to a milk-based breakfast again, but it all feels very slushy now that we stopped using it. And grocery shopping needs to be so strategic these days, needing a lot of milk around is annoying. So John renewed a search for local bakeries and found that La Boulangerie in Logan Square is open and sells multi-grain whole wheat loaves. He masked up (in my first home-made mask, more to come!)
And returned home with these beauties! Delicious!!!
We’re also out of bananas, but I don’t think there are banana shortages so we should be able to resolve that one soon.
Hope everyone else’s breakfasts are going ok! Feel free to add your successes / trials in the comments!
Yum!
I’m a little confused about the cutting out berries that were being brought in from far away. Aren’t bananas also brought in?
Good point! But bananas have way better availability and don’t feel as out of season as winter berries.
Good effort on giving up milk… it definitely is the one product that means we need a second trip to the shops each week! Is there a lot of black coffee drinking at yours now? Nice looking bread too… funnily we had a lot of bread in the freezer right before this as mum and dad and I kept doubling up on bread buying by accident. I also made some sourdough right at the start of all of this. Flour is such a challenge to buy though and I’m now adding in a lot more whole meal (better all round of course!) and really thinking through the flour amounts in what I’m making… 2.5 cups for scones seems excessive, right!?!?
Yep – black coffee drinking here! Miles gave up milk in coffee at college b/c of the same challenges of having it around. Lucky you with bread in the freezer and flour in the pantry! I haven’t made scones in a while so it’s hard to know!
Nice bread and nice work on the mask!
I bought a 5-pound bag of flour a couple of weeks ago before this crisis reached our shores. At the time I was thinking, why am I buying all this flour? I hardly ever bake. But I need it now and then. It is disturbing that the U.S. doesn’t hold grain national grain reserves. So what happened to the idea of “breadbasket to the world” and our “amber waves of grain”?
I ordered groceries online, and when it came to bananas they were sold by the pound. I was afraid to order a quantity of “4” because I didn’t want 4 pounds of bananas. Because ordering online is in the experimental stage for me, I exercised caution and ordered “1.” Same with tomatoes. Can’t wait until tonight’s delivery to see whether I get a single banana and a single tomato.
I know – seems like we should stand silent during the amber waves of grain line now as protest! And yes we are finding the same thing about online ordering. I thought we were getting a bag of onions this week but it turned out to be one onion! Good luck with your order tonight!
I can’t even tell you how many mandarins I once ended up with when I thought I had bought 4… I think I had 4kg worth!! Brought half into the office to share around!!