286 animal, vegetable, miracle
biscuit mix fortified with MSG. We asked if they could process batches of
whole wheat or unbleached white flour for us, but we were just one fam-
ily without enough influence to change even a small company’s program.
We needed fellow locavores to add clout to our quest, and in time we’ll
have them. For the time being we liberally supplemented the local prod-
uct with an organic brand made from wheat grown in Vermont. We some-
times made our own pasta, but more commonly were buying that, too,
from outside our state. Ditto for breakfast cereals, though the motherlode
was a large package of David and Elsie’s amazing oatmeal they sent us as
a gift. Some things followed us home from Italy, too, including perma-
nently influenced tastes in wine. But we stuck by our commitment to lo-
cal meats and produce. In the realm of processed foods, we’d mostly
forgotten what’s out there.
We’d long since said good- bye to summer’s fruits, in exchange for some
that are bountiful in December: antique apples, whose fl avor improves
with cold weather; native persimmons, which aren’t edible until after
frost hits the tree. It’s also the season of citrus in the Deep South, and if
you don’t live there, the transfer of oranges across a few states from Flor-
How to Impress your Wife, Using a Machine
I know you’ve got one around somewhere: maybe in the closet. Or on the
kitchen counter, so dusty nobody remembers it’s there. A bread machine. You
can actually use that thing to make some gourmet bread for about 50 cents a
loaf, also becoming a hero to your loved ones.
First, get the machine out of the closet (or the box, if it’s still in there). Sec-
ond, I’m sorry, but you’ll have to read enough of the manual to know how to put
together a basic loaf. Then do exactly that: find a basic recipe for the white or
whole wheat loaf and make it a few times, to get a feel for it. Use fresh ingredi-
ents; throw out that old flour and yeast and start with new flour milled specifi -
cally for bread, preferably organic.
Now comes the creative part. Visit your local health food store or grocery
and find the flour section. Most will stock what might be called alternative fl ours;
these are the key to your gourmet bread. Among these are wheat varieties like
kamut, pumpernickel, durum, and other grains such as spelt, oats, or rye. Other
flours are made from rice, soy, buckwheat, millet, corn, potato, and barley. Be-