Alexis, the springtails are a good source of food, excellent in fact. Plus, you don't try to keep them in a food dish. Dump them into the tank and hope that they set up residence there. They are very good for a tank, and the frogs will hunt them and eat them. They break down frog waste, mold, etc. I highly recommend dumping a lot of springtails in the tank and just letting them be. They even break down the waste of my tomato frogs, which one poop of theirs is about the size of one of my whole dart frog's body! So they are really good at cleaning the tank. I am getting some rice flour beetles in the mail any day now. I know nothing about keeping them. I will have to learn.

I use rice flour and rice bran in making flatbread (crackers) - it helps to make them very crispy. Rice flour will definitely change the texture of what you add it to. Lars' Flatbread Ingredients 1-1/3 cups water (lukewarm) 2 tbsp dried malt extract (or 1 tbsp sugar) 1 tbsp instant dry yeast (or one package) 1/2 cup oat bran 1/2 cup rice bran 1/2 cup rice flour 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil (canola or grape seed) 1 tbs olive oil 1 tbsp toasted sesame seed oil 2 tsp salt 3 to 3-1/2 cups unbleached flour Toppings: 1 egg + 1 tbsp water (for brushing on top of dough) garlic powder onion granules caraway seeds poppy seeds sesame seeds Pour lukewarm water into a mixer bowl and add malt extract. If you use liquid extract, you will have to double the amount and use less water. Whisk in yeast until all is dissolved. Then stir in oat bran, rice bran, and rice flour. Allow this mixture to rest for half an hour or more, and then add the oils. You can add less oil if you want a harder cracker. Then add 2 to 2-1/2 cups flour that has been sifted with the salt, and put the bowl in the machine with the dough hook. Mix at high speed (with the splash guard on) until blended. Then add flour in small increments until the dough makes a ball that is not too sticky. Finish kneading by hand, or simply place in a bowl that is lightly greased with olive oil, and allow to rise for a couple of hours, or leave it in the refrigerator covered overnight. I let my dough rise twice. Preheat oven to 375°. Pinch balls of dough about 2-1/2 to 3" diameter and roll the dough on a floured surface into a rectangular shape as thin as possible. Prick the dough all over with a fork or docker and brush lightly with egg wash. Dust very lightly with garlic powder and onion granules. Sprinkle caraway seeds (if desired), about two per square inch. You dont need many of these, and it is easy for them to be overpowering. Then sprinkle poppy seeds evenly over, as desired and finish with the sesame seeds. Its better not to overdo the seed toppings (especially the caraway), but I havent had a problem with the poppy seeds so far. Pat the seeds into the dough with your fingers and then cut the dough into squares using a pizza cutter or ravioli cutter. Transfer the dough, using a metal spatula, onto an ungreased baking sheet, and bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes, or until toasty in appearance. You will need to watch them closely towards the end, as they will burn easily, once they are done. I use a toaster oven for most of them, but sometimes I bake them in the regular oven until almost done and then finish the untoasted ones in a toaster oven at a lower temperature about 350° for 2-5 minutes. You can always toast underdone ones later. I based this recipe on some flatbread that I bought in Sonoma. The package listed all the ingredients, and so all I had to do was to figure out the proportions - I may have made some additions of my own as well. I can buy some similar flatbread here, but it is not nearly as good as what I make or as what I got in Sonoma. Lars

Oh, no! Bad sentence on my part. Southern California. We had a wonderful Syrian bakery that made brilliant pita. I still miss them. My heart breaks for what has happened there, but I've never been to Syria. You haven't said why you're eschewing "enriched flour" and don't need to, but white flour products are required by law to use vitamin enriched flour, and even most home baking white flour (bleached or unbleached) is enriched and has a little malted barley flour in it as well, which has a lot of an enzyme that's needed for rising. Unless you have a specific problem with one or more of the vitamins or the barley, the enrichment shouldn't be a problem. Maybe you're just concerned that there's white flour in there. White flour is often added to whole wheat flour to make the rise spongier. Sometimes vital wheat gluten is added to strengthen the gluten (the bran in the whole wheat can weaken or cut it). Wheat gluten can be isolated by hand by washing the wheat and kneading out the starch, and has been done for centuries, so it's not a weird industrial product. Anything that's made with white flour in the U.S. uses enriched flour. There may be some places that mill and sift their own flours that do not, but that's an extremely rare exception. Therefore, I would guarantee that the Lebanese pita are made with enriched flour. The thinner thing is probably a lack of leavening. Even in the Middle East, nowadays, the pita have leavening and are a bit spongy. That's not traditional. :) I haven't seen Kontos, and I'd guess it's an East Coast brand. I don't doubt that it's good! Whole Foods might be a better place to get 100% whole wheat, however, unless you can find a Middle Eastern or halal store where people are into the "new" kind of dietary laws (no white flour, pasture raise livestock, etc.). Maybe try stores near the colleges? College kids tend to be into better eating. Turlock is from California. I know they freeze to ship it to avoid preservatives, so you might find it there, but more likely the Whole Foods have something local. Good luck on your quest.

This you need to sort of go by feel but this recipe is the best one I've tried. FLOUR TORTILLAS 2 cups flour 1 tsp salt 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 1/2 tsp oil (corn or canola) 3/4 cup lukewarm milk or water Sif the flour \, salt & baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Into the dry ingredients pour the oil & mix with your fingertips to combine. Add the milk or water, working the liquid into the dough until a sticky ball forms. Lightly dust a counter or pastry board with flour & knead the dough vigorously for 1 minute. The mixture hsould be "earlobe-soft" & no longer sticky. Let the dough rest, covered with a damp cloth for about 15 minutes. Dive the dough into 6-8 balls, cover them again with the damp cloth & let them rest another 15-30 minutes (or you can refrigerate them covered up to 4 hours.) Lightly dust a counter or pastry board w/flour & roll out each ball of dough into a circle or oval approximately 1/4" thick. If you want nicely rounded tortillas, trim off any ragged edges & discard. Don't roll the dough out more than once or the tortillas will be touch so you should reroll any scraps. Heat a dry griddle or heavy skillet over high heat for 5 minutes. cokk the tortillas 30 seconds on each side or until the dough looks dry & slightly wrinkled & a few brown spots form on both surfaces. Serve warm.~~