One of my husband’s hobbies, skills, and crafts is bread making.  As I’m typing this, my laptop “stand” is a stack of 4 bread making books detailing the process in different ways.  I will have him on here to share his sourdough breadmaking and bagel making tips and recipes because he has nailed both.  Although, in his mind, he hasn’t.  Which brings us to this post.  Another one of his goals this year is to make it better.  Play with the variables – including flour – to improve the outcome.

We discovered a grain grower and flour mill in our very own Skagit Valley.  Many respected bread makers use their flours and we thought this a perfect opportunity to stock up on one of their popular bread flours.  The timing of our trip coincided with the tulip festival so we planned to leave early and hit a few of our favorite spots in the big city along the way.  We made some coffee, grabbed some egg bites and hit the road.  Our first stop was Bakery Nouveau, a wonderful French bakery with all the delicious classic croissant items available.  I snagged a traditional plain croissant and a Kouign Amann.  Mike snagged a chocolate chip cookie and a twice baked chocolate croissant.  We continued down the road.  It was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning and early enough that there weren’t many people out and about yet, except those at the Costco car wash.  Our next stop was Uwajimaya in Seattle where we loaded up on some curry, special sauces, and noodles.  Really just making use of the trip into Seattle to grab things we’d normally have to get elsewhere.

We drove up to the Skagit Valley – it was a beautiful day.  We arrived at Cairnspring Flour Mill and picked up our two 50-lb bags of flour.  We stocked up because it’s a long trip to pick up flour, and you actually go through a lot of flour when you’re making all of your own bread.  And since the pandemic, I like having a stash at home.

Cairnspring Flour Mill is a small operation, providing quality flours that are both milled and grown locally. You can check them out at https://cairnspring.com/.