Preseason Chodosh Bulletin

[Y. Herman]

Text Box: s"xc PRESEASON CHODOSH BULLETIN Guide to Chodosh, c/o Yoseph 
Herman, 20 Sylvan Road, Monsey, NY 10952 Address all subscriptions to: 
Project Chodosh Subscriptions, PO Box 150088, Kew Gardens, NY 11415 Hot 
Line Phone: 718-305-5133. E mail: yherman at earthlink.net June 08


  TIME TO RENEW SUBSCRIPTIONS TO THE GUIDE TO CHODOSH

It is time to renew your subscription for the 3 issues of the Guider to 
Chodosh that we will ??"? publish this upcoming season. Please note that 
the cost of the three issues this year is increased from $17 to *$18*. 
Please mail your check and the renewal form at the end of this Bulletin to

Project Chodosh Subscriptions

PO Box 150088

Kew Gardens, NY 11415

All other correspondence should be sent to the Monsey address, listed at 
the top of this page.


    SUBSCRIPTION RENEWAL FORM

Please fill out this form and return with your $18 check made out to 
“Project Chodosh”, for the subscription to next season’s Guides. Mail 
to: Project Chodosh Subscriptions, PO Box150088, Kew Gardens, NY 11415

FIRST NAME:_________________________ FAMILY 
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__RENEWAL (SAME ADDRESS) ; __RENEWAL (NEW ADDRESS); __ NEW SUBSCRIPTION

*POTENTIAL MAJOR PROBLEMS FOR YOSHON IN THE FORTHCOMING SEASON*

*_THE PROBLEM: _*In the previous years, your local bakeries have been 
using Yoshon spring wheat flour to produce their breads, challehs, 
rolls, bagels, pizza, etc. This year, due to the unusual world-wide 
wheat shortages, we are facing unprecedented shortages of spring wheat 
that has usually been available this time of the year to be stored for 
next season’s Yoshon. This is coupled with a corresponding unstable 
price situation in the futures markets for spring wheat. As a result, it 
is quite possible that methods used until now of producing Yoshon foods 
from stored Yoshon spring wheat may be curtailed or be unavailable to 
your bakeries this coming season.

*_A MEETING WAS HELD _*on Jun 16. This meeting, which was called by the 
Guide to Chodosh, was held at the headquarters of the O-U. It was 
attended by the mashgichim that give hashgocho on Yoshon and by 
representatives of the flour mills, flour distributors, pasta makers and 
others from the food production chain. Some of the conclusions were:

· The usual Yoshon spring wheat flour is thus far only being offered for 
the entire season by one mill, and only to those who commit to purchase 
this for the entire forthcoming season by June 23. It is not clear how 
many bakeries are prepared to make this commitment so early is the season.

· A second mill can offer Yoshon spring wheat flour, but only until 
early November.

· Even these 2 mills are only offering the Yoshon flour in the New York 
area. It is not known if any Yoshon spring wheat flour will be available 
elsewhere in the country.

· A second option has been proposed for producing Yoshon baked products 
without the need to store spring wheat. This method would be applicable 
anywhere in the county, at any time, without prior reservation or 
commitment. This involves using a pure winter wheat flour (that is 
always Yoshon) and enhancing it with added “vital wheat gluten”. This 
option has been used successfully by some bakers. However, it does 
require some experimentation. Not every bakery may be willing to 
experiment with such new methods. In addition, the price of this new 
method will not be established until more of the winter wheat is 
harvested, by mid July.

· Gefen expects to have Yoshon barley over the entire Chodosh season.

We will probably not know for sure what each individual bakery, pizza 
shop, catering hall, etc will choose to do until around sukkos time, 
around mid October, when the second issue of the Guide will be under 
preparation. _Even bakeries and other facilities that have been 
producing Yoshon for many years, may choose not to do so this 
forthcoming season._ This means that the first issue of the Guide will 
list only very few bakeries and similar establishments, only those that 
already have made the commitments to use the new methods of Yoshon 
production by early August. Even these may choose to change their minds 
depending on their experiments. Therefore _this puts an extra, new task 
on the shoulders of the Yoshon consumers. They must keep checking and 
rechecking the Yoshon status at their bakeries, etc, until the situation 
stabilizes. _We expect all facilities which will choose to discontinue 
Yoshon, to post prominent signs to that effect. It also means that the 
first issue of the Guide will become obsolete to a very large extent 
when the second issue comes out, hopefully by early November. Between 
the publication of the first and second issue of the Guide, you will 
have to rely, to a much greater extent than in past, on updates that we 
hope to post on the Hot Line news and by email.


  ESTIMATED CHODOSH STARTING DATES

The above problem is due to the general shortage of old crop available 
for Yoshon storage. The same shortage _will cause the new Chodosh season 
to begin earlier than in past years_. The lack of old crop will force 
the mills and factories to start using the new Chodosh harvest as soon 
as it comes off the harvest. The following are our early estimates of up 
to which date it will be recommended that you can purchase foods without 
concern for Chodosh. These are *preliminary estimates* only. Corrections 
and updates to these will be posted when available, on the News section 
of the Chodosh Hot Line and by email to those who subscribe to the email 
list (see below.)

· Items using oats should be safe to purchase without looking at codes 
up to around Jul 15

· Foods using wheat, other than noodles and pasta, safe to purchase up 
to around Aug 1.

· Noodles and pasta safe to purchase up to Aug 15.

· Barley products, other than items from barley malt, safe to purchase 
up to Aug 15

· Barley malt products, including beer should be safe to purchase up to 
Dec. 15.

*AGRICULTURAL FACTS*

Even though pesach was late this year on the solar calendar, most of the 
crops that may be Chodosh were planted after pesach. According to the 
reports of the U.S. Dep’t of Agriculture, the following percentages of 
crops were planted after the start of pesach and are Chodosh: spring 
wheat-20%, barley-22%, oats-30%.

The winter wheat harvest has been significantly delayed this year due to 
heavy rains in the growing areas. These rains may also make it more 
difficult to use this year’s winter wheat with added vital wheat gluten 
to bake breads, since they cause a lowering of the protein level of the 
crop. (See the discussion above.)


  THE EMAIL MAILING LIST

Those who have access to email can have important corrections and 
updates sent to their email address automatically. To subscribe to this 
free service send a blank email message to:

Chodosh-subscribe at jif.org.il <mailto:Chodosh-subscribe at jif.org.il>

Those who have subscribed last year to the email distribution list do 
not need to renew this email subscription.

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__________________________________________

Project Chodosh is an independent activity, not affiliated with any 
movement or organization. We thank the Jewish Internet Fund (JIF) for 
allowing us to use their E mail distribution services. The JIF provides 
free email and web hosting to Jewish education and outreach 
organizations. We also thank the sites moruda.com and sefer.org for 
allowing the public to use E mail to request copies from their 
facitlites of the Guides to Chodosh and the Mashgichim.