Gluten-free Beer—Getting Better

M* picked up two Green's gluten-free beers at Waitrose. I've only tasted one other g.f. beer, last September, and, while not gross-bad, it was too-sweet-bad. Our English friend James was over, and we invited him to take part in our tasting. We discovered that Green's is an English company, which surprised James, as pioneer and pilgrim, another of Green's beers, even for the English, is associated with America.

Our favorite? Discovery. Pioneer, a lager, was fine, but a little too apple-y. The three of us found Discovery quite satisfying. Having a beer loving Englishman's approval meant a lot. All I need now is a purse that doubles as a cooler, so I can finally drink beer in a pub.

Curious as to the ingredients of the beers, I went to the Green's web site, but I only found a list of what is not in their beers: Gluten, Crustaceans, Eggs, Fish, Peanuts, Soya beans, Milk, Lactose, Nuts, Celery, Mustard, Sesame seeds, Sulphur dioxide and Sulphites.

Places We Shop: Daily Bread Co-operative

Without Google, I never would have found the Daily Bread Co-operative. It's in the northern part of the city, just inside the A14 freeway and about 200 feet from a sometimes-busy road: Kings Hedges. If you looked towards the Daily Bread from Kings Hedges, you'd spy a few nondescript buildings with no sign indicating a food store. An interesting fact about this establishment that I would not have known if I had not visited their web site—it is a Christian workers cooperative which "looks at what the Bible says about how (they) should run a business."

My Google search was for gluten-free in Cambridge. Daily Bread sells high-quality, low-price gluten-free flours: brown rice flour, potato starch, tapioca flour. I also pick-up almond milk (four times as expensive as in the US and hard to find), bulk brown rice, bulk muesli, chickpea flour, corn meal, lentils, split peas, nuts, dried fruit and the like. The distance is about 7 1/2 miles roundtrip, so I only go about twice a month. The area isn't bad, but it's a touch sketchy. A skanky teenager on a bike once nicely informed me that he'd "do me." Another time, two cars were drag racing on Kings Hedges and one drove over a set-of spikes as he was speeding on the wrong side of the street. Luckily his tires blew out and stopped him: I was only 40 feet or so in front of him.

Today there was a pleasant surprise: a rainbow.

Things We Like: TRUfree Gluten-Free Crackers

These crackers come in plain, spicy and garlic and onion, and all varieties are crisp and tasty. They don't crumble or differ in consistency with every box, which are problems with GF products. They are a favorite of M*'s as well, and we always have either the plain or spicy on hand. They are great with cheese, peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese or plain. Because they are high in fiber, M* started describing them to people as "Amy's high fiber crackers." I asked him to say gluten-free, if anything, as highlighting the high fiber suggests a different reason for buying the crackers.