Bob’s is your best on-line source for flour and other baking ingredients. Not everything is gluten free, but the Mill goes to great lengths to avoid cross-contamination , and everything on the website and in the retail store is clearly labeled.

 I’ll walk you through the two approaches to on-line shopping at Bob’s Red Mill: (If you are already comfortable shopping on-line, just skim the rest of this article to get a general idea of the features available on this site.)

 START WITH A RECIPE

1. Click here to go to the home page.
2. Click on Recipes at the top of the home page
3. Type in the keywords “gluten free” and then click the Search button
4. Choose and click on a recipe that interests you.
5. The recipe will include links to ingredients that can be purchased from Bob’s Red Mill

  START WITH A SPECIFIC INGREDIENT

1. Click here to go to the home page.
2. Click on Gluten Free Info in the left sidebar
3. Click on the words “Click here for a complete list of our gluten free line”
4. Click on a specific ingredient
5. Click on Add to Cart if you wish to purchase the product. You will get the chance to change your mind later.
6. Scroll down to see recipes using the ingredient. (recipes will not always be there)
7. Click on a recipe that interests you
8. Note that the recipe includes links to all necessary ingredients that are available from Bob’s Red Mill.

 Once you have found what you are looking for, the normal on-line shopping procedures go into effect. If you don’t know the basics of shopping on-line, I suggest that you make contact with a celiac friend with on-line shopping experience. This will accomplish two things for you:

• It will minimize the fear factor involved when you do your first on-line shopping. I had never shopped on the internet before my celiac diagnosis. My son was coaching me by long distance telephone at the time, but I was still expecting disaster. Eventually I discovered that gluten free shopping on-line is quicker, and no more expensive than traditional shopping and that there was much less chance of accidentally purchasing a “gluten bomb”.
• It will reduce your costs significantly if your mentor joins you in ordering. A shipping cost is added to virtually every on-line order but the shipping cost-per- item drops significantly when you place a larger order. The vendor does not know or care who eventually receives the products, as long as everything is charged on the same card and shipped to the same address. (This tip applies to all your on-line shopping.).

 (Published 05/17/08)