I got the store brand flour this weekend for $1.19 for 5#. Bought 5 bags, it will be fine for bread. I can do without the KA or Pillsbury if I have to pay the same amount for 5# as 25# of the cheap stuff.

Marigene, you are SO right!

But the stuff that I make with KA is noticeably better, so it's a toss up if I'll be buying different flour or just baking less. At first I thought that it was just a question of my getting used to a new oven & went back to P'bury & Shoprite brand flour for awhile. But the results just weren't as good for me.

I do know that, regardless, I'll have to fork over the 5$ for bread flour as the KA is the only bread flour that I can readily get and my pizza dough has never been better since I started using bread flour.

Nina

Nina,

5# KA is $4.99 here in CT also (just checked). Like you, at least for now, I'll bake less rather than buy Pillsbury or Gold Medal. Gold Medal is $3.19/5#. The $1.80 difference is not enough for me to even consider changing brands. With just the two of us it's not a significant part of our overall budget. 5# of bread flour will last me two months & 5# of AP lasts at least six weeks.

The inflation of food prices is cummulative, of course. But, so far, it's been easy to just adjust our eating habits to hold costs. In fact, it's probably been beneficial (fewer baked desserts & smaller protein serving sizes, etc.).

BTW, I received an email today from KA. They are having a sale this coming weekend but only from the store. Some stuff is discounted 50%, some 25%, & some 10%. I phoned and, unfortunately, all flours are only 10% off. So, I'm not sure the savings on grain products would offset the price of the gas to drive up to the store. :(

We normally go to KA one/twice year but with the price of gas we haven't scheduled a trip yet for '08. Gas touched $3.99/gallon here this weekend. We're eliminating some of the 'just for fun' kinds of driving and, unfortunately, trips to KA fall into that category.

/tricia

If you have a Trader Joes, they may not have increased their price for KA flour yet. For the same bag of flour at Vons and Henry's the increased price is about $6 something, at Trader Joes, it's still $3 something (closer to $4 I think)

Tricia,

How funny, I got the same email from KA & my first thought was "oh it's not worth the gas to make the trip". In the past I definitely would have seriously considered it.

Just for fun trips are pretty much out unless it's via motorcycle & even then, the bikes take premium gas so it costs a lot more to fill them as well. Most errands are run on the way home from work & I've even tried to curtail my lunchtime outings.

I know that the price of everything is up but it was seeing that little bag of flour no bigger than our cat priced at 4.99 that really drove the point home.

My mother always said that she'd rather have a little bit of something good than a large amount of something mediocre so I'm trying to look at things that way.

Nina

I didn't know TJ's had KA flour - I'll have to look for it there. I ordered some pumpernickel flour from KA on line, and the shipping cost as much as the flour. At least I have it now, and I'll try to remember to make some pumpernickel bread on Wednesday.

Lars

A 5.5 lb bag of unbleached all-purpose flour is $5.79 here!

Thanks for reminding me that Trader Joe's carries some King Arthur flour. I'll be sure to pick some up next time I shop there.

In the Washington DC area, my Safeway had prices of $6-7 a 5 pound bag on KA flour starting about 6 weeks ago. I actually asked the manager if it was an error - it wasn't. Who will pay that? At my Whole Foods KA flour in 5 pound bags is still in the upper range of $3-4...

The prices of commercial flour should drop after harvest - which is just around the corner. But just incase, I'm glad I have several varieties of wheat and a plethora of other grains in storage I can mill to see me through a good long time.

The wheat in the 3-county area around me is excellent quality, the best in the State, and looks like a bin-buster; but one hail storm or heavy rain can turn that all around.

The ironical thing, a mill just outside of town is milling white wheat flour for King Arthur, and it's unavailable on the local grocery store shelves. Go figure...

BTW - I can make a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread with 10 cents worth of grain milled into flour - and that's some of my more expensive wheat.

-Grainlady

I didn't even know KA had stores?

Mary,

King Arthur is America's oldest flour company. They're in Norwich, Vermont. Their company store is a very fun day for a home baker! The staff is wonderful. If you call ahead, for example, they will set up a work space for you & you can make bread with every stand mixer they sell before making a decision on which to purchase. They spent an entire day with me when I bought my Electrolux DSL 'Assistant'. They've got an amazing array for flour blends plus all of the 'hardware' a baker could ever wish for! Here's a blurb from the website...

"Started in Boston in 1790 and now based in Norwich, Vt., America's oldest flour company has grown from a regional staple to a brand known nationwide not only for its high-quality flours but for our passion in sharing the joy of baking; from a small mail-order business with five employees in 1990 to the premier baking resource with nearly 200 employees today; from a family-owned operation for five generations to a 100 percent employee-owned business. King Arthur Flour - the Baker's Catalogue offers more than 1,000 professional-grade baking tools and ingredients through its catalogue, online at www.kingarthurflour.com, and at The Baker's Store in Norwich, Vt."

King Arthur Flour is a New England institution like LLBean & Gardener's Supply.

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: King Arthur Flour

like Nina, I bought a 10# bag of KA at BJs last week for $7.49. Last time I bought it it was $4.79. But I also won't use anything else.

Nancy

When this topic came up several weeks ago I placed an order with KA. I also bought BobÂs Red Mill rye at the organic market in Bakersfield. I paid $4.99 for 5 pounds just last week. Does anyone know anything about Red Mill?

I bought some Ca. brown, red and wild rice. The 1 pound price was up to $4.99 from $3.49 last time I bought it. I would like to store it uncooked in the freezer but I am not sure how to do that. Do I leave it in the original packaging? Any tips would be appreciated.

When the Ca, Nevada earthquake page went over a 1000 quakes I went to Bakersfield and really stocked up on canned goods. Stuff we would not normally eat but in an emergency would be useful. I dated the top of the cans and will take it all to the local food pantry next year. Hopefully we will never have to use.

They are worried that the damÂs will fail, even installed warning sirens last week, and the only real market we have , VonÂs, is below the dam 15 miles from our house. If we have a big quake we will be on our fore several weeks. We live on the top end of the lake so we would be fine but would have no way out if the bridges fall. Our small local market is across the river. I can see it from my kitchen window but would never be able to get there if the bridge was gone.

I have never been this stocked up. I have enough beef, pork and chicken to last us well into next winter. We get our power from an Edison plant 2 miles upriver and the local guys tell me we could have power even if the CA. grid goes down. Or we could end up with a really big BBQ. LOL

Claudia

I always maintain a good stock of flour in the kitchen and in the freezer, so haven't had to buy lately. I'm not looking forward to making the next purchase, given the price increases.

Claudia, I'm a huge fan of Bob's Red Mill, which is a long-standing landmark here in the Portland area. I've included a link to their video "tour" which says as well as anything what they're about. Though I have been a KAF customer for many years, long before their flour was available here in stores, I feel personally that Bob's Red Mill has remained more true to their mission than KAF. I still buy some KAF products, but not with the frequency that I used to.

Bob's Red Mill is family-owned. I can only hope they remain the same into the next generation.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Bob's Red Mill Tour

not only the flour price, the rice price has also increased :( in our place (Chicago)!

Here is a link that might be useful: Recipes

partst/Claudia -

Bob's Red Mill has excellent products (although sometimes a bit on the pricey side), great service, and a good recipe collection to go with all their products. A lot of them are being made available in grocery stores "health/natural food" section - which helps save on shipping. For years, I've ordered hard-to-find (for me) items like chana dal, kamut, soft white wheat (hard wheat is easy for me to get locally), amaranth and teff, etc. I purchase only whole grains/seeds/beans and mill my own flours, flakes, cornmeal, grits, multi-grain cereals, etc.

Bob's Red Mill is also an excellent resource for gluten-free grains and mixes.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Bob's Red Mill

Claudia (that's my sister's name so I'm mentally pronouncing it in the eye-talian way while I type), with the exception of a small canister on the counter I've started keeping all of my flour in the refrigerator or freezer. I had an infestation of drugstore beetles a few years ago and I swear if we hadn't gutted the kitchen I never would have gotten rid of them. The flour goes in it's regular bag, in the fridge & things like cornmeal or pastry flour that don't get used on a regular basis are kept in the original bags, with plastic bags over them but more to avoid spills than anything else. I've noticed no difference between the performance of the frozen/cold/room temp flours.

I had to laugh about your really big BBQ because a few years ago we lost power in the middle of the summer for a few days. I have a small freezer downstairs that I keep stocked but after the 2nd day things were starting to thaw so we basically invited the neighbors over & started grilling.

I, too, had forgotten that TJs carried KA flour. I'll have to try & get over to check it out. But I see that a 5 lb bag of bread flour on KA's website is 4.95 so I might just as well buy a bag now at 4.99 and be done with it.
My local Shoprite also has a good selection of Bob's Red Mill flours (which I've never tried) so I guess I'm lucky. Nt as luck as grainlady who gets to mill her own, though!

Nina

I was at TJ's last week and went to get a bag and was shocked at the $3.99 price. It was $2.79 the last time I bought some. I thought maybe they lost their distributor. I looked at Von's the next time I was at the market and was floored that it was $5.79. Needless to say I picked up a bag yesterday when I was at TJ's.

I just bought a bag of KA whole wheat and another of white whole wheat for $3.99 a 5 # bag at the Meijer's in Grand Rapids. It was the same price at Walmart in Fremont and Whole Foods in Ann Arbor, go figure. That's about $1 more than Pillsbury or Gold Medal, but I'm another who thinks it's worth it. It has gone up about $1 a bag in the past few months.

The real sad part is that the farmer gets about 6 cents out of each dollar, so about 25 cents of that $3.99 goes to the farmer.

Annie

I was in our local VonÂs today and went by to check out the prices. They actually had KA, I have never seen it here before, and it is $6.19 for 5 pounds. Gold Medal, Pillsbury was $4.79 and $4.99. The House brand was $3.49. Now I am really happy I stocked up. ItÂs almost 100 degrees here today so I wonÂt be baking any time soon.

Carol and Grainlady,

Thanks for the links to BobÂs Red Mill. I bookmarked for future reference.

Sigh,

I was named from the movie "Claudia and David" and have not come across many ClaudiaÂs. The few I have were mostly my age.

Claudia

Thanks to this thread, I picked up some King Arthur white whole wheat & unbleached all purpose flour at Trader Joe's today -- $3.99/5-lb. bag. I'm glad for this discussion of prices.

WOW! Finally something that is cheaper in Canada! Our flour has gone up in price also, from about $7 to $10 for 10kg. Yes, that's kg vs. lb. I always buy my grocer's store brand, as I've never found the national brands to be any better.

I didn't read this thread earlier, and wouldn't have been so shocked at the price at BJ's yesterday if so. $7.49!!! Last time I purchased the flour it was $5.49, and the previous time, $4.79. That's just in four months or so. Eggs are killing me, too. Safeway advertises BOGO 18-pack for $4.99. So that's $4.99 for 36 eggs. BJ's sells their 18-pack for $1.79. What's wrong with this picture?

Nancy (who has a neighbor preteen named Claudia and an Eyetalian SIL named Claudia)

I looked at flour prices at my local Tom Thumb, which is a Safeway subsidiary, and KA flour was $5.79 for a 5 lb. bag. Pillsbury's bread flour was on sale for $2.69, so I went ahead and bought a bag of that, even though I don't need it yet. Now I'll find out just how much better, or not, the KA is than the Pillsbury.

Sally

proudmama, I just checked the price of eggs last night, $1.39 a dozen for large. They were over $2 in the winter.

Of course, my 14 "girls" are giving me 14 eggs a day, so I sure am not buying any!

Annie

Annie, I wish I could have hens. But our property, though zoned rural, is on a stream and I worry about the runoff. Congratulations to you and Elery, BTW. I never got around to posting on the other threads.
Nancy

Annie- WHY are you posting about eggs & flour when you should be posting wedding pictures?!

I just found out that a local farm will let you "sponsor" a chicken for 5$ a month...you get a picture of your chicken, can come & visit & if you commit to a year of sponsoring can even come & harvest the eggs. I, too, would love to have chickens! Get me an Egglu & I'll be all set. I doubt that I'm zoned for it, though.

I'm really surprised to see that the same miserable 5 lb bag of flour is more in some places than it is in NY. I guess I shouldn't complain when 5.79 makes 4.99 sound like a deal.

Nina

Nina, there ARE wedding pictures. Check the Gallery.

Plus, I'm at work and the County's firewall won't give me access to Photobucket. (grin)

Annie

I recently read a press release from King Arthur, they have announced they are lowering the price retailers are charged for KA flours. This is good news but I wonder if the savings will be passed on the consumers.

Here is a link that might be useful: KA Press Release