I checked the price of yeast while I was out

I can't come anywhere near Grelo's 2.99 a pound.  It's $10-18 a pound here.  I didn't find any in bulk  You can buy it in half pounds sizes, so $5-9.Both Bob's Red Mill products  Somebody is making out like a bandit.  I might have to go find a CO-Op.  See how theirs is.

Gee Wiz I am glad I live near an Amish store. Haven't been there in a long time but yeast wasn't nearly that high. I didn't check it out at Wal-Mart. I don't need any right now.

If you can't afford the yeast you might think about making a sourdough bread. Not all sourdough is sour.

The last time I looked, 4 oz. of bread machine yeast in a jar was $7.99.  The jar does last me quite a while since most recipes use less than 2 tsp.

  It's not that I can't afford to buy it,I'm just flabberghasted that the price is high and varies so much.  I have gone the sour dough route, but we can't eat as much as it takes to keep it going.  I thought it would be the highest at the health food store, but not.  It was $4.95 for 8 oz.  I'm still just checking around until I think I've gotten a good deal.

Fleischmann's yeast was $4.95 for 8 oz at Walmart.  So that is still $10 a pound.

I get my yeast from a local representative of Alsionspantry.com (out of Utah). I just checked heir website and the price of SAF regular (not instant) ueast is still $2.99, I do pay 10% shipping on what I order so the lbs of yeast actually costs me $3.30.

In pur 2 sptres a 4 oz jar is ovewr $8.00.

Alisons Pantry sells a lot of prepared foods, something like Schwan's, only in larger quamtities. Our local rep has over 200 customers in two small towns with a combined population of 2200. She delivers to the house.

Since the company is out of Utah they also carry some of the Mormon long term storage foods (dried veggies and such), bulk flour fron Lehi Mills (in Lehi/Utah) amnd until now also had 50 lbs bags of grain but are now out of wheat.

I bought 5 lbs of Ghiradelli Dutch processed cocoa powder last year for a bit over $5.00. Since the $ has lost value the price may now be higher, they also have Ghiradelli chocolate chips in 5 lbs bags that were real reasonable.

I don't buy or eat prepared foods but the few bulk items I have bought from them for the last 8 yrs were of excellent quality.

It may be inetersting to e-mail the company and see if they have reps in your state. I know they aren't all over, but in possibly 4 or 5 western states. Their bulk spices have been very reasonable but many also have increased in price. I bought 1 lbs of dried chopped bell peppers from them, a mix of red and green, I hydrate them and put them into my "calaico" cornbread I also add some small cooked Adzuki beans ad bacon cracklings to, that way, with a piece of cheese on it it is almost a complete meal and delicious.

The website is fun to lok at, even if you don't buy anything..

Danswife,

no, I can't garden any more, I will we 81 in August and have 3 herniated disks in my lower back. Not bad enough for surgery yet but bad enough to give me grief when I di o repeated bending or just washing dishes with a slight forward bend.

Then there is a question of money, the ground in this town is so lousy, it would cost me $1000.00 and a few years to to work in peatmoss, green sand, calcium and a few other things in order to grow much more than a few weeds. Not to forget I would have to put at least a 6 ft high chicken wire fence around it to keep all the cats out. i use to garden in raised beds, double and triple cropped and pulled every litle weed by hand. I never planted anything in rows except peas and Swiss Chard, everything else was broadcast just like we did in Germany.

Then there is a very short gardeneing season here, we are still going to have frost and snow forecast for tomorrow night. It will not last but a day. Nothing is green yet, a few lawns are trying and I can see a few leaf buds on the lilac bshes. Also, ND is well nown for a lotof high winds, big thunderstorms with hail (we did make the news 4 yrs ago when we had baseball sized hail and every roof in town had to be replaced, any windows broken and many carstotalled. Hail that large is very rare but smaller up to quarter size is common here, then you have grasshoppers and we have had drougth conditions for 5 years, not too many  people water their lawns because it is too expensive. I am afraid when it comes to garedening I am batting zero, and beleieve me, I miss my garden.

BTW I did not sell the produce to the co-op, they just sold it for me, then took ther % and paid me for what was sold.. The Baker City co-op has over 1000 members from all over the area and  many non members bought their spices there because it was much cheper than in the stores. And some non members also bought organic produce brought in from Azure.

Nowm I see someone wanted to know what to do withe "sponge". Sorry I did not expalin, you sort of use it the same as you would sourdough except you have more of it since it is not that strong.

I don't really measure my flour or water or salt, so I am just goint to guess. I have a huge stainless bowl I dump about 6-7 lbs of flour into. Make a deep depression into the middle and dumpt the sponge in there. Then I add some lukewarm water, mix (with my hand) the thinned sponge with some of flour around it until it is about double in size. The sprinkle a bit of flour on top to keep it from drying out and let sit for an hour. Then i dump te sponge into the bowl of my kneading machine (it has an 11 qrt bowl), add a bit more water and some flour and start kneading. In the meantime I add two small hands full *(appr 2 rounded Tbsp) of Kosher salt with the rest of the flour and start adding it. If needed, I add a bit of water until the dough "feels" right to me. Then I cover the bowl and let the dough "sleep" for 20-30 minutes to relax the gluten.

Then it gets dumped onto the baking board ( 2 ft by 4 foot with a rim around 3 sides) and knead quickly by hand to get it nice and smooth. (oops, forgot, sometimes I add either 1/3 to 1/2 cup of either peanut or olive or corn oil to the dough). Put it into a greased bowl, cover up and let rise until double. Then punch it down and weigh it. (I have the scale adjusted to 2 lbs on the minus side to make up for the weight opf the bowl).. Then I divide it into either 2 lbs portions (for white) and 2 1/2 for darker bread for each pan. Knead the air bubbles out, shape and put in pans. Cover pans with a cloth and let it rise until almost double (maybe 2/3 instead f double) because it does expand more in the poven and if you let it rise too much it will collapse in the oven or right afterwards). Like I mentioned, I like a heavier, more dense bread and so do the frends I give some to. Let's say we do sort of barter. I get a discount from the plumber, a son of friends, a big husky lad of 30, helps me lift heavy stuff and rolls out my  big garbage dumpster every Sunday and also mows my lawn/weeds, another friend does mending and a little sewing for me and others give me some produce out of their garden. Others always invite me for Holiday famiy dinners, from another I get 30-40 lbs of rye . kernels after harvest. And each party only gets one loaf of bread p mo. Oh, I forgot the lady from honey company, she gets load every 2 mo and I always get a pint or even a quart if honey in return. Everybody has offered to pay me for the bread but I will not sell and never asked for anything but all those folks show their appreciation by doing something for me. I would not be a bit surprised if I would find a  50 lbs sack of wheat sitting in front of my door as soon as harvest is over. One day I had a beautful new solid copper bird bath sitting by my door, it even had a little brass bird on it. Still have not found out who it was who gave it to me. I am sharing it with my neighbor where our back yards join and both of us can enjoy it. It is easier for her to keep water in it since she has a faucet out back, mine is out front.

And that is about IT fr tonight, got some new books from the libarary and want to do some reading  after I check what is going on in KC.

I know I haven't been too much help with the bread but I really have not used a real recipe in many years, somehow it seems no matter what I throw in it, it turns out ok. (maybe beginners luck???)

Grelo, thank you.  The yeast is 2.99 for a pound, but the shipping is $9.53  Total would be $12.52.  It might still be cheaper to buy than me running around trying to find a good price.  I will check out a couple more places.  Well, I'm just going to order it.  

Editing   After giving it some thought I can't beat that price even including shipping.  No tax.  The jar I have is 4 oz.  I thought it was bigger.  So if I paid normal $4-5 per jar.  That's $16.00-20.00 per pound.  Thanks again Grelo.  Now I'm going to look for other things on her website.  That could be a bad thing.

Grelo did you mean Alisonspantry.com? I found that site. It is really neat. Thanks for posting it. It is like our Mennonite-Amish stores here. Thanks again.

Yes, cowgirl that's what it is  www.alisonspantry.com

Send an e-mail to the Alisons Pantry company and ask if they have any representatives in your area. MOst likely not where the Amish are, too far east, but folks who lve in parts of SD, ND, Idaho, Utah, possibly Nevada and Montana. I know there is another rep 40 miles from here to service a different area than ours does. When you order through a rep you only pay 10% for shipping.

I bought my 5 and 6 galloon food grade buckets frrom them as well as some Gamma Lids, although the buckets do come with lids.

If you can find some friends and others who are interested in  forming  a buying club. Ours is 40 mi west of us, we get our things at a 10-20% discount from the healthfood supplier Azure Standard in Dufir/OR and pay 8.5% shippijng fo truck delivery by a farmer who grows oragnic wheat for the company and delivers to them every two months. On the way back he delivers along the route. He drops off 65 mi north of Bowman and a volunteer goes up and brings the stuff down. It is distributed at the old KC Hall in Bowman. Yearly dues are $5.00, that is used to help the volunteer with gas and for mailings.

How to go about forming a buyng club is easy, go to your county extension service and ask for help.Then put a small ad into the local paper and I would bet you will find some interested people. Besides Azure there is a huge healthfood company that supplies nationwide to healthfood stores, co-opsand buying clubs. The name used to be "Mountain People Warehouse" (out of California, but they were baught pout by the mother company. You can still get the name of the big company by googling Mountain People Warehouse and it will give you the other name and offices all over the US. I bet some of the Amish stores get some supplies from them.

If I were younger I'd form a partnership with 2-3 other people and open a dented can store. The one that  was 25 mi from here closed because the owner had cancer and it got to be too much fr her. Since we are so far from everything it may have cost more for a whole semi load to ship here. But a whole load was $9000.00 and she said it was always like christmas, she never knew what was on the truck. The building she had was about 25 ft wide and 80 ft long with the front 38 ft store part and the rest storage in back. There is a LOT of stuff on a full semi load . She had just about everything, mostly  groceries but also some  OTCs, some cookware, some office supplies, household cleaner but the groceries were sooo reasonable. My friend once baught two brand new (still in box) stainless steel, triple bottom pans (one 2 qrts and one 1 qrt) for $6.00 If I were 30 yrs younger I would give it a try even if I had to borrow the money from Uncle Sam at 2% interest right now.

Like I said before, some times memberes of buying clubs share, I have shared a 50 lbs bag of cornmeal with two others, same with barley, 38 lbs boxes of raisins, dreid apricots, chopped dates and such. It is quite a bit cheaper to buy in bulk. The lady who runs the club is easy to get alog with, she understands that neither  my friend Esther or I can always come on the day when they get the shipment, they keep it for us until Esther goes to Bowman, she lives closer (only 22 mi from there) and picks itup, then keeps mine at her place until she comes here.If she can't make it, a neighbor of hers who gets her hair done here every Sat, brings the last 20 mi it or another neighbor of hers who is the receptionist at our eyeDr office will drop it off at my house

 There are books out about how to form a co-op run by volunteers but I bet any university extension service can help form a buying club and help find suppliers. Got to mosey along and put some dishes away.

Grelo I did bake bread for many years on and off and I know what you are saying that you just know when it's right.  I still remember my Aunt making bread, doing it your way and it ended up too sticky.  She cerainly made us girls laugh.  That was our favorite thing about going to our Grandma's house.  Was the bread in the green can with a lid stored out on the back porch.  We had it with home made jam. 

I actually found a really good deal, but already ordered.  Because of the price of gas I don't feel like I need to be running all over looking for a good deal.  I was at Cash and Carry.  It used to be private for busnisesses and restaurants to purchase case goods, but a few years ago they opened it up to eveybody as long as you can pay cash.  They had 2 lbs of yeast for $5.25.  I'll have to try that next time. 

Grelo, I checked.  There are no reps in Washington state.

WE also have a Cash and Carry here, Dove, but ours is a privately owned lumber yard (and they also  take checks and credit cards). The  $ 5.25 sounds real good for 2 lbs of yeast***, it comes out about the same if you figure your gasoline and time to go there it may come close to  what I pay incl the 10% shipping, plus the rep delivers to the house.

*** Make sure you check the expiration date.

Have to and grab a bite and then get ready to go. See ya later.

I bought 4 oz. of yeast last night for just under $9.00. Ugh...

You save yeast by making a spong the night before baking. I can't understand why American recipes call for soooo much yeast, like 2 pckg for one loaf of bread.

If I were to use yeast (without making a spnge) I can still make 5 lg loaves of white bread (19 + cups of flour) with as litle  as two packs.

With a sponge I use 1/2 tsp and get 5 - 7 loaves out of it.

But then even my white bread is not like the mushy fluff they sell in the store or what most people like. Mine has some body and you can spread things on the slices without the slices falling apart or tearing. And when you toast it it doesn't turn into a paper thin wet mess when you try to spread something on it. I just can't understand why people spend money for such an inferior product that is about as nourishing as a mouth fiull of air.

Most Americans who have been stationed in Germany or have visited there  as well as France, Holland and the other Northern European countries all loved their bread; you would think most would have learned something and demanded better bread from US  bread "manufacturers". or at least would bake bread with more substance at home.

 I'll never figure  that one  out.