For an accurate explaination of the difference between "almond flour" and "almond meal", check the link below. Depending on the low-glycemic or gluten-free recipes I'm working with will depend on whether I make my own nut meal or purchase nut flour. -Nut FLOURS are ground from the cake that remains after oils are pressed from nuts. -Nut MEALS are ground from whole nuts, and are grittier and oilier than nut flours. The term "Flour" is often used for both these ingredients, but they are actually very different. They CAN be substituted one for the other with textural changes in the finished product. Some manufacturers call their product "flour" when it's actually the more coarsely-ground and oily meal. You can use either blanched raw or roasted almonds. Roasted almonds will lend a different flavor to the meal. King Arthur has both roasted and regular almond flour avaliable if you would like to purchase them. Personally, I'd only order them when the weather is cool because high heat can change the flavor of nut flours. I've found I get a slightly different meal if I use a method from the book "Nourishing Traditions" and soak almonds overnight in lightly salted water. Soaking causes the almonds start to sprout. Drain the next morning and dehydrate until crispy dry. Then mill into almond meal (roast the almonds if you like). I find these almonds easier to digest and they have more available nutrition than raw almonds. A good method for anyone who has difficulity digesting nuts. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Cook's Thesaurus - Nut Meals & Flours

Annie, I've found there's a lot of differences between the wheatberries from different farms. If yours aren't working, you might try finding one with a tested for that crop higher protein level. These might not apply to you, but are some of the things I've learned for 100% whole wheat, home milled, bread: If you mill at home, and aren't looking for a sweet flavor, you don't need any sweetener. What the honey is for in a lot of recipes is hiding the bitterness that whole wheat flour develops when it sits awhile (weeks) and starts to go rancid. A little acid, besides dealing with the anti-nutrients, works as a dough conditioner and retards mold growth (if we leave an end long enough to mold it's the free flour on it where it starts, not the bread itself). Ascorbic acid is fairly easily found as vitamin C crystals. I figure a jar may last me forever. It does add a little complexity to the flavor, which you might notice as acidity, but won't taste sour like vinegar. Handling the risen dough as little as possible, helps keep the gluten from being cut. It does not like "drawing a tight cloak". Like that saying about teaching a pig to dance, drawing it around like that just annoys the bread--the gluten breaks rather than stretches. A better way to shape, if necessary, is by folding, lightly. Do your best not to degas because it may not reinflate. If you're willing, adding vital wheat gluten makes up for the deficiencies of the protein content of the wheat. Re hydration, I always do a soak. A soak is where you either make up the dough for a long rise (at least 8 hours), or just combine the flour and liquid and let that set for at least 8 hours. This can be done in or out of the fridge. It takes awhile for the wheat to hydrate and what seems too dry turns damp and sticky. Whole wheat also takes more hydration than white. The best proportion I've been able to find, and have been using, but haven't tested extensively enough to know for sure from my own hands is 5 tsp. water for every cup of whole wheat flour that you substitute for white flour. Also be careful of the rise. If it doubles, it's probably too far gone. Aim for half that (1.5 times the original bulk). Maybe a little more. I haven't found a lot of good recipes, but that's common to all of the ones I do have, and if I miss and it gets to double on the rise, I don't get any oven spring. Oh, and no double rises. It doesn't want to be punched down. I found this recipe in a surprising place when I was looking for a low cleanup (water saving) daily bread: http://www.instructables.com/id/100-Whole-Wheat-Crusty-No-Knead-Artisan-Bread/ It's a good recipe. I've been playing with it, adding in other grains, and mixing in seeds and all. Overdoing that can also interfere with the rise, but I've got it to where I like it, and I prefer the multigrain flavor. I don't know if any of that is helpful to you. I've been on the same journey for a year, and had some sourdough flats of my own. :) Great sympathy here!

My Shoestring acacia was already stressed from all the rain the last couple of years. It did not grow at all last summer where in the previous two years it had grown about four feet a year. Also the foliage was sparse last year and many small twigs were dead. Unfortunately, the freeze finished it off and we had to remove it. I'm just glad I got to enjoy it for a couple of years. It's one gorgeous tree! There are several growing in Austin. One of them is shown here in photos 14 through 17 on Pam Penick's blog: Digging. I'm very curious to know whether it and others survived this last freeze.

After a bit of trial and error we assembled the grain mill, I can never remember how that auger goes in. And we ground wheat: We ground it twice so it was nice and fine. Now, what to do with that lovely wheat flour? Cookies, of course, the universal food, LOL. But their Dad doesn't like chocolate and I was out of chips and so we settled on peanut butter cookies, with one M&M on top of each or one "unicorn" chip, so Daddy could pick them off if he decided he didn't want the decoration. A sprinkle of raw sugar for crunch, and they were ready for the oven. The girls didn't think they were sweet enough, so they added Nutella frosting, but I liked them. They weren't particularly sweet, but they were soft and fluffy, and tasted of fresh grain and peanuts, which I thought was very nice. I also have hard red wheat, hard white wheat, soft white wheat and some corn. I'm going to use the rest of this batch of flour to make bagels, I think. If this virus gets worse I won't see the girls for a while, but if it stays "stable" in my area we'll do some more baking and talk about why certain types of wheat are better for certain kinds of baking and maybe make something like soft pretzels. Their teachers were very impressed and said they thought no other kid in the school district would have that particular lesson, combining science, agriculture and a bit of math, LOL. Annie