The Setting

By March 2020, the pandemic was just beginning but it already triggered strange behaviors. Aside from a rush on hand sanitizers and Lysol, folks bought flour. Bread baking had become the rage. It wasn’t any type of bread, it was sourdough bread.

Aside from sourdough's appeal to one’s palate and purported health benefits, there's a mystique about ‘The Starter’. It's only a mix of flour and water, but as airborne bacteria and yeast settle on its surface, it magically  transforms into a fermentation engine. Add a few other ingredients and it will coax a lump of kneaded dough to rise. Shift that dough to the oven and soon you’ll have a homemade loaf to enjoy. 

There is a catch. The Starter must be fed regularly like another living thing in your home. Some baking aficionados have kept a Starter going for years!

My wife Carol enrolled in a three day, intense, online bread baking course emanating from King Arthur's flagship kitchens in Norwich, VT to perfect her craft. This is that story.