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| My Claudia at Rest |
Here's your chance to feel like a creative artist, a mad scientist, and a mother earth goddess nurturer in your very own kitchen! You're going to maybe sneak up on this experience so you don't get overwhelmed or attached to exact expectations about the process or the outcome. In fact, I'll simply share the story of my pet sourdough starter, Claudia, with you so you can just taste the idea with your imagination.
I was diagnosed with an allergy to gluten, among other things, about three years ago. My husband, who is a damn good friend (among other things) and I became completely gluten-free, cold turkey, for almost two years. The effect on him was a decrease in itchy skin patches and a drop in weight on an already very slim frame. The effect on me was a glorious release of fatigue, rashes, and painful digestive issues. Good things, right? Well, these problems re-emerged over time, apparently triggered by other industrially processed and prepared grain products we were consuming. I began to see a homeopathic doctor who taught me that my body's rejection of food was a manifestation of anxiety and other negative thought patterns and the allergies would simply continue to transfer to new triggers unless I addressed the root cause. So with her guidance and herbal supplements, I did, and I felt amazing again! I could eat anything and still feel light and well!
But, did I want to eat anything? Um no. I wanted to
eat well. I also wanted old-world style bread to be a wholesome
part of our otherwise basic diet of fish, meat, fruit and vegetables. By then,
I had learned the damage that conventional grain farming has on the body. I
learned from the greats, like Michael Pollan in his book titled Cooked,
that using non-commercial sourdough culture to bake bread the way the
chemistry of bread was originally discovered would be a totally elevated
physical experience.
The internet contains lots of information about how to birth a sourdough starter. It was confusing for me to decipher. Eventually, I decided to approach the task bravely and from the senses rather than trying to understand intellectually and factually how to do this. But before I began, I tried the lazy way of asking everyone I knew if they knew how to find someone who already had one that could be shared with me. No luck. So here's how it worked...
I stole two of the biggest old glass cookie jar from my Mom's kitchen where it had not been used since...ever that I can recall. I bought flour that I felt good about and that I knew I would also use to bake bread (whole wheat and unbleached white stoneground bread flour). I filled one giant jar up with flour and in the other, I put two cups of flour and a bit more than a cup of tepid water. I mixed that up in the jar with a long spatula until it was all wet, then covered it with its NOT airtight glass lid. The mixture uses the microbes in the air to come alive! Once every morning and once every evening I added more flour and water at about that same ratio - mixing until the consistency was about like wet cement. Since I had my head in this jar twice a day and was feeding it expensive flour, I decided to give it a name and basically talk it into life. This took about a week. I named her Claudia and whispered sweet words to her whenever I passed by. I was sloppy with this process - I scraped the mixing spatula with bare fingers, I let extra just stick and slide around the sides, I measured like a drunk person, and I loved her with abandon. I also poured some of her out into mason jars to be stored in the fridge and used for other experiments and shared with friends when my jar got more than half full so that she would have room to grow.
One morning, Claudia smelled like rot and I knew good things were happening! She was more bubbly than usual and seemed to be begging to be fed...reaching up to meet me from the bottom of the jar. I fed her and then she smelled more sweet than sour. A few hours later, after she had a chance to digest breakfast, I scooped out about a quarter cup of her and plopped her into a little over 1 cup of water AND SHE FLOATED. This is apparently called “proofing” by real bakers. Ok, so if she had not floated, I would have known that she's not strong enough to rise a bread. In which case, I would have continued to feed her twice a day. Since she DID float, I knew she was not only born, but strong and ready to serve! I have since only needed to feed her once a day except on the rare occasion that she becomes weak. I can tell she's weak if I begin to bake bread by dropping a quarter cup of her into the water and she drops heavily to the bottom.
I used that first floating water/starter mixture to make my first Claudia loaf and it was heavenly yum. Also, all discard starter since then has gone to friends and health coaching clients who use it to start their own or simply use it for making pancakes and such. Of course, I use it to make all manner of healthy things. Sometimes, I simply drop the starter directly into hot skillet with coconut or olive oil for quick flat bread. Point is, Claudia never goes to waste. She gives and gives and when I can't give back by feeding her because I'm going out of town or simply have too much bread to consume, I just stick the whole jar in my fridge until I'm ready to reawaken her again. Reawakening simply involves putting her back on the counter and starting the feeding up again, usually twice a day for a day or two then she's strong again.
Tip: if your starter acquires a layer of darkish, translucent liquid across the top, pour it off before feeding or using. Otherwise, try not to fuss over cleaning or over-controlling the appearance of the jar. It will become the perfect, funky environment for your pet! The only thing I’ve discovered she can’t handle is overly hot weather. If your house is warmer than 85 degrees in the summer, you’ll probably have to store your starter in the fridge. If you want it to be active and to rise/grow, it should be between 70 and 85 degrees in its environment.
All this occurred in my kitchen during busy times with kids, career, travel and community responsibilities. For me, it is one aspect of the culture of my kitchen that makes me feel very calm and grounded. In other words, it counterbalances other life responsibilities that add stress. Plus, the result is food that really nourishes our bodies and spirits...connecting us to the ancient ways of baking daily breads before commercial yeast was invented for convenience and profit. Bonus: fresh bread is such a joy to share with friends and lovers.
A friend from far away lands once observed that Americans only fear one thing: inconvenience. I intend to prove him wrong. I would rather have inconvenience that results in deeply satisfying experiences than convenience that makes me feel as though I'm living a mediocre existence.
The internet contains lots of information about how to birth a sourdough starter. It was confusing for me to decipher. Eventually, I decided to approach the task bravely and from the senses rather than trying to understand intellectually and factually how to do this. But before I began, I tried the lazy way of asking everyone I knew if they knew how to find someone who already had one that could be shared with me. No luck. So here's how it worked...
I stole two of the biggest old glass cookie jar from my Mom's kitchen where it had not been used since...ever that I can recall. I bought flour that I felt good about and that I knew I would also use to bake bread (whole wheat and unbleached white stoneground bread flour). I filled one giant jar up with flour and in the other, I put two cups of flour and a bit more than a cup of tepid water. I mixed that up in the jar with a long spatula until it was all wet, then covered it with its NOT airtight glass lid. The mixture uses the microbes in the air to come alive! Once every morning and once every evening I added more flour and water at about that same ratio - mixing until the consistency was about like wet cement. Since I had my head in this jar twice a day and was feeding it expensive flour, I decided to give it a name and basically talk it into life. This took about a week. I named her Claudia and whispered sweet words to her whenever I passed by. I was sloppy with this process - I scraped the mixing spatula with bare fingers, I let extra just stick and slide around the sides, I measured like a drunk person, and I loved her with abandon. I also poured some of her out into mason jars to be stored in the fridge and used for other experiments and shared with friends when my jar got more than half full so that she would have room to grow.
One morning, Claudia smelled like rot and I knew good things were happening! She was more bubbly than usual and seemed to be begging to be fed...reaching up to meet me from the bottom of the jar. I fed her and then she smelled more sweet than sour. A few hours later, after she had a chance to digest breakfast, I scooped out about a quarter cup of her and plopped her into a little over 1 cup of water AND SHE FLOATED. This is apparently called “proofing” by real bakers. Ok, so if she had not floated, I would have known that she's not strong enough to rise a bread. In which case, I would have continued to feed her twice a day. Since she DID float, I knew she was not only born, but strong and ready to serve! I have since only needed to feed her once a day except on the rare occasion that she becomes weak. I can tell she's weak if I begin to bake bread by dropping a quarter cup of her into the water and she drops heavily to the bottom.
I used that first floating water/starter mixture to make my first Claudia loaf and it was heavenly yum. Also, all discard starter since then has gone to friends and health coaching clients who use it to start their own or simply use it for making pancakes and such. Of course, I use it to make all manner of healthy things. Sometimes, I simply drop the starter directly into hot skillet with coconut or olive oil for quick flat bread. Point is, Claudia never goes to waste. She gives and gives and when I can't give back by feeding her because I'm going out of town or simply have too much bread to consume, I just stick the whole jar in my fridge until I'm ready to reawaken her again. Reawakening simply involves putting her back on the counter and starting the feeding up again, usually twice a day for a day or two then she's strong again.
Tip: if your starter acquires a layer of darkish, translucent liquid across the top, pour it off before feeding or using. Otherwise, try not to fuss over cleaning or over-controlling the appearance of the jar. It will become the perfect, funky environment for your pet! The only thing I’ve discovered she can’t handle is overly hot weather. If your house is warmer than 85 degrees in the summer, you’ll probably have to store your starter in the fridge. If you want it to be active and to rise/grow, it should be between 70 and 85 degrees in its environment.
All this occurred in my kitchen during busy times with kids, career, travel and community responsibilities. For me, it is one aspect of the culture of my kitchen that makes me feel very calm and grounded. In other words, it counterbalances other life responsibilities that add stress. Plus, the result is food that really nourishes our bodies and spirits...connecting us to the ancient ways of baking daily breads before commercial yeast was invented for convenience and profit. Bonus: fresh bread is such a joy to share with friends and lovers.
A friend from far away lands once observed that Americans only fear one thing: inconvenience. I intend to prove him wrong. I would rather have inconvenience that results in deeply satisfying experiences than convenience that makes me feel as though I'm living a mediocre existence.
Up next...how to actually bake bread with sourdough starter, old-world style!
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