Spring 2020 — A season of bread, self reflection, & personal development.

This story is 100% Gluten Free

Sourdough baked in my kitchen with yeast harvested from my garden.

This is a short story about isolation, reflection, & yeast — or personal & professional development.

I grew up just outside of San Francisco on a diet of many things including world renowned sourdough bread. In 2012 I moved to the Intermountain West & became acutely aware of feelings with strong parallels to my New Yorker friends languishing for a real bagel. While you can get all kinds of really good yeast breads here in Salt Lake City, the sourdough pickings are slim — & seemingly always wrapped in plastic.

In a breadbasket shaped nutshell, I miss fresh sourdough. A couple of years ago, a close friend of mine (my brothers ex-wife, my ex-sister-in-law, what the heck is the proper noun for that?) was in culinary school learning to laminate croissants & make gorgeous loaves of sourdough bread. Rumour had it she acquired a coveted & well protected piece of a historic starter. I can neither confirm nor deny this but she calls it ‘Moses’ because it is so old.

This revelation got me to thinking “How does one start a starter?”

Well It’s now April of 2020, & many of us in the US are in some form of isolation or lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And because of this pandemic, certain supplies…