The History of sourdough came many years ago! The Egyptians record its use 6,000 years ago! The Jews used it as leavening long before their famous flatbread. What is the appeal of bread leavened with "starter" instead of yeast that comes in packets, jars, and cakes! Which are the fulsome taste: and the certain mystique, although starter is a microscopic fungi living in a friendly environment of flour and liquid. The people that keep a batch on hand, using a spoonful, cupful or what ever their recipe calls for, feeding the starter with equal parts of flour and water in the same amount that was removed, and letting it ferment before using it again. With its wild yeast and distinct flavor there is nothing else like it. Sourdough has been around long before they developed yeast. Our Pioneers used it to come across the plains.  Sourdough traveled the Oregon Trail. It traveled California in the gold rush days! And sourdough even made its way into Alaska in the early part of the 20th century.  Everyone used it! Back in them times because there was no other way to produce bread products.  Also, when you want to bake bread you pull out a package of yeast only to find that it has expired back in July, where as wild yeast are rugged individualists with phenomenal survival skills.  With proper care, they will last a lifetime.  In the olden days people coveted and fought over their starters, prospectors in California, and Alaska protected their sourdough starts with their lives.

     How to keep a good start going!

 All you need is 1 or 2 tablespoons of sourdough starter, you can get some culture from a friendor relative that keeps a start on hand. There are places on the web that you can mail for a start.

Once you have your start! Now mix 1 cup of flour, and 1 cup warm water to your start and mix well, don't worry about getting all the lumps out because the fermentation of the dough will take care of them. (Note never use a metal bowl always use a glass or a plastic bowl).

Try it, but remember three simple rules for this ancient way of bread making; Use your starter often, every week or two, and feed it after each use; And last, wait patiently during rising, because wild yeast's are slow. A lesson we need to learn for our times!

Your sourdough start can be stored in the refrigerator until you want to use it again. Your sourdough is not a lost cause if you happen to leave it in your refrigerator to long. All you need to do is pour off the dark liquid on top and clean up the top of your sourdough with a spoon, leaving a couple of Tablespoons of sour dough behind, add 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water. The let it sit at room temperature for 48 hours, or until very active. Now you are ready to go!

You want to bake something just bring your starter to room temperature, mix 1 cup flour, 1 cup warm water and let it sit over night or all day to ferment. The next morning, remove what the recipe calls for, and save the rest for another time.

Whoever kept the sourdough starters going are heroes. They represent all those good folks who valued the food of their people and passed it on for the future use of mankind.

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