Noel Labat-Comess, the former owner and founder of Tom Cat Bakery, sent me a message recently; "Jeremy, I need to ask you a favor. A farmer I know gave me a 5lb sample of a flour a friend of his is producing. He'd like to know what I think of it. I don't have the time or means to do anything with it at the moment nor have I made bread in a very long time so I'm sure my judgement will be rusty. Would you mind playing with it and letting me know what you think of it?"

When he sent me a 5 pound bag of Robbins Family Farm white milled flour, I couldn't resist. It's always a pleasure to use flour that feels alive and local, this from a farmer in Sacket Harbor, NY. I made three different loaves from what seemed like a high extraction flour. Mixing it with some different flours, as well as using it alone, yielded some great results, and amazing crust and crumb. Thank you, Noel… and thank you , Paul Alward  of Hudson Valley Harvest along with Robbins Family Farm.