One thing leads to another

Today the path to the ice-cream shop leads me to a gum tree. A Gum Tree with capital letters.

The Gum Tree is a rather fancy food store in Albert Park, stocking a vast range of goods that might appeal to those lucky enough to have a vast amount of disposable income. The disposable suggestion was prompted by the startling difference in the price of Murray River Salt Flakes as compared with prices in supermarkets.

In my search for Australian produced/grown food there is no limit to the upper or lower end of the price scale. Any produce vendor is fair game as far as I am concerned.

I head in the door in a brisk and businesslike manner and start the usual search. My first inspection stop is just inside the front door, where the fruit and vegetables are displayed. I speak to Ben who is stacking the shelves and generally making the display look appealing. In answer to my question about Australian grown produce he tells me that their produce is always labelled. I look along the rows and see little evidence, apart from pre-packaged goods, that this is the case.

I always find this disappointing but by now I know the inevitable answer to a question about lack of labelling. Invariably the answer is framed, more or less, about the time and cost taken to label the produce. An answer, which is more often than not, is delivered in a defensive and irritated manner.

I must make it quite clear this was not the response at the Gum Tree today.

My main mission in this store is to enquire about the availability of compressed yeast. I think my chances of this product being available are zero and in this respect I am not disappointed. Ben does suggest I might make enquiries at the South Melbourne market and I am very pleased to at least have a pointer in some direction.

It’s always a good thing to have a search prospect ahead of me.

Bread

I previously posted about bread and its country of origin labelling exemption here. This labelling exemption places bread ingredients and their country of origin in the realm of the Great Unknown as far as this Ausfood blog is concerned.

In my naiveté and enthusiasm I considered making my own bread would be the next best and easiest thing to do. I’ve made bread on a small scale at the Trash Palace, an enterprise I’ve always enjoyed. I even know where my favoured bread recipes are - in the loose leaf piling system, of course. These are recipes which have always turned out a reliable result.

So, full of the business of getting down to the prospect of toast at breakfast time, I scurried off to the supermarket.

I came home a very disappointed person.

The item on the shopping list which caused me the greatest disappointment was yeast.

I searched in every supermarket in my locality, within walking distance of the Trash Palace, and drew a blank. Four blanks to be exact, one for every supermarket whose shelves I inspected.

The only yeast available, as you might expect, is the dried variety. The great disappointment was finding, of the three brands available, two were imported products and the third brand was disinclined to disclose the origins of their yeast product. To pass muster in the great Ausfood ingredient search the packaging must clearly state the country of origin, with Australia is the preferable country of origin; on all counts none of these products qualify.

Compressed, or fresh yeast, is an alternative, but in this 21st century, where speed and ease of preparation prevails in the kitchen, it is highly unlikely I will be able to find this product anywhere, let alone on supermarket shelves.

I see a big search project looming.