Bob’s Red Mill Field Trip

Last Friday my sister and I braved a trip to Bob’s Red Mill with all our kids. First we went to the plant and got a free tour. It was really fascinating. Although it was a lot of talking, all the kids were really intrigued. One of Seth and Sam’s favorite stories is, “Where Does Bread Come From?” by Richard Scarry, so they were really interested to see the real life mill stones and assembly lines. I was amazed by Bob’s Red Mill’s story and how well run their plant is. They have an entire section of their mill dedicated to gluten free flours and are very rigorous in making sure there is no gluten in those products. They definitely secured my future business!

We then headed to the Bob’s Red Mill store to purchase all the alternative flours via their bins. The prices are amazing! I’m sure by the time we left the store, everyone was glad to see us go. The kids really did well, by how long can one expect squirrely little kids to quietly wait for their mom’s to load up their carts?

Katie and I laughed a lot about our “crunchy” field trip. Crunchy is the word we’ve been using to describe our new food outlook. It describes this odd, hippie, foodie lifestyle we’ve had to adopt to avoid all the allergy foods in our lives. We’ve been having to make almost everything from scratch, read every label, and shop in bins. But, you know what: it’s okay! Our families are eating healthier than ever before and we couldn’t live in an easier place to have to buy all these alternative products than the Portlandia area. Where else could you take your kids on a crunchy field trip? The tour guide describing the mill stone “Boys, scoot together.” This is a picture of them looking at each other and saying, “You scoot over,” “No, you scoot over.” Seth, Sam That’s where the gluten free magic happens The best out of  10+ pictures—yikes!

A quick update on our families food allergies: I can’t remember if I blogged that we had the boys tested and they both are highly allergic to wheat and gluten as well. Regardless, Ben is the only one in our family who eats wheat now. It actually makes it easier in some ways. Seth’s stomach has vastly improved with the the diet change, as well as his countenance…he’s so cheerful and laughs so much more now! The biggest improvement in our household, however, has been SLEEP! Lots of undisturbed sleep! For the first time in the the boys’ lives they are sleeping through the night without waking up frequently. Their terrors and nightmares are almost completely gone! It is quite amazing!

Seth and Sam adjusted so well to having to be “gluten free.” In fact, they kind of drive me crazy with it. “Mom, does this have gluten in it?” “Can I eat those chips mama?” Every meal, over and over again. When they play pretend food, now they’re making everything gluten free, or with wheat for daddy. Kind of cute, kind of sad, perhaps just their way of adjusting.