SOURDOUGH Simplified

I’ve often wondered how it is that bread, which is so basic to most of the world’s food cultures, has turned into something that we are intimidated to make ourselves. Homemade bread is often much more nutritious, and certainly less expensive, than so-called “artisan” breads available commercially. As farmers, homesteaders, or sustainability-minded city dwellers, we not only want to learn to do more for ourselves, we want to be more economical in our use of resources. In other words, we don’t want to waste time, money, or effort.

If you’ve been to one of my presentations at the Mother Earth News Fair recently (www.motherearthnewsfair.com), you’ve heard the story of how I used to get up at 2 a.m. to shape and proof bread dough. Being naturally thick-headed, it took me more than a few rounds of this to figure out that I was, frankly, out of my mind. For goodness’ sake, I’m not a professional baker! Plus, I never slept well after those nocturnal trips to the kitchen. Interrupting a night’s sleep like that, all for the sake of one loaf of bread, simply didn’t make sense. So when this finally occurred to me, I set about learning how to control my bread-making routine, rather than having the process control me and my schedule.

Slow Down

Why do people shy away from making their own bread? The main reasons I hear are that it seems mysterious, complicated, and inaccessible (especially sourdough), or they don’t have time for bread-making. I get it, but I’m going to change your mind about it.

▪ Bread is simple: flour, salt, yeast, and water. Bread made with commercial yeast ferments fairly rapidly; the entire process takes