I was raised years ago in the West, where sourdough was king. The bread had good taste and texture. In the years following college I spent a lot of time in Europe enjoying wonderful bread. Upon returning home I was faced with the dilemma of finding good bread, that earthly kind I had learned to love overseas. Whenever I returned to Mississippi from a California vacation, one of my suitcases would be loaded with sourdough bread or I would get a care package at Christmas containing sourdough. In the end I always ran out and faced with by bread problem. About 10 years ago I visited my sister-in-law, Sharon, in San Diego and she was making this great bread……..and I started to bake.
In my other life I was an oceanographer and towards the end of my career I took a bread class at King Arthur Flour to see if I really wanted to bake better bread. I followed this with a week at the John Campbell Folk School learning about sourdoughs. My wife and I are going to Colorado in early October to learn about starters, more sourdough, and New York bagels. Old time bread making is generally considered a lost art. We make our Serious Breads from scratch and do a lot of hand kneading. Most of our bread is made with a poolish or a biga. We have found doing it this way provides the bread with a better taste and texture. In other words good healthy eating and that’s what we are about.
Keep safe.
The Breadman at the Mockingbird Café
Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.