Brian,

Not all wheat is the same thing, nor is flour just flour. Different grains and flours have specific qualities which makes them useful for certain products, and worthless for others. Seminola wheat, for example, makes the best pasta, but doesn't make very good bread (IIRC, it doesn't rise well). Special types wheat might be milled only in a few locations due to the need for special equipment (for example, some berries are much harder than others, or too much oil in the germ could clog regular milling machinery). Thus it is quite possible that some mills in Buffalo had a near-monopoly on milling and distributing certain flours that would be needed nationwide. Now California does (or did) raise and mill quite a bit of wheat, but it might not be suitable for the products made by that San Diego bakery.

Kind regards,


Garth G. Groff

Brian Carlson wrote: