The Sourdough Series: Introduction

Welcome to the Sourdough Series!

Before kicking off with sharing my sourdough journey thus far, I wanted to first share a little backstory as to why I want to share this journey with you. Sourdough became a huge trend during the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone had some extra time on their hands and we had to do everything from home, why not start baking your own delicious bread? My interest for sourdough started here, but I personally did have the time or effort in me to start. I also didn’t think any average person could just start baking sourdough out of the blue. I thought you had to be handed down a sourdough starter that was decades old, that it would take up all of my time, and I had never even baked a regular yeasted loaf of bread. So instead of sourdough, I started to get more into other homemade baked goods.

I have been baking since I was a little girl. The first memories I have of it were when I would visit my family up in the state of Maine where they had a little island in the middle of the lake that had tons of wild Maine blueberry bushes. We would take a canoe across the lake, pick our blueberries, then go back to the house to bake fresh blueberry pies that were some of the best tasting pies I’ve ever had. Since then, I have baked everything from cookies to pies to cakes and have always found it so comforting and therapeutic. When the whole sourdough trend started picking up in 2020, I wanted to start at least trying to bake simple yeasted loaves of bread and see where that took me. I instantly fell in love with bread baking after my first crack at it, which was a delicious focaccia bread, and haven’t turned back since. I bought books, started following accounts, and practiced as much as I could. It wasn’t until my brother bought me tickets to a bread baking class that I was eye-opened to the world of sourdough. 

In that class, I had learned that sourdough wasn’t nearly as complicated as I thought. I found out that you could make your OWN sourdough starter! Who knew!? From this moment on, I was determined to start my own sourdough starter and begin my sourdough journey. It wasn’t easy, takes A LOT of trial and error, and I am most definitely nowhere near an expert. I am most certainly not telling you to follow what I do, nor am I claiming that my sourdough process is anywhere near perfection. But, I do want to share my journey in hopes it may inspire you to start a sourdough journey all on your own. Not only has it encouraged me to make so many more things from scratch, but it has also saved us so much money. I am now making our own weekly loaves of bread, breakfast items, pizza crusts, and even more fun things along the way. And I am just at the start of it! 

As I’ve grown and gained experience as a nutrition professional, I have come to strongly believe in taking a holistic, balanced approach to eating. Food has so many different meanings, and each person has their own unique relationship to food that shapes their eating habits. Food is fuel for our bodies, but it is also enjoyment, memories, nourishment, and comfort. Modern-day society has become so detached from food where food has turned into whatever is convenient, a new fad or trend, something that highly processed, a chore or burden. And trust me, I get it. Life is busy, we don’t have as much time, and we aren’t at home as much. But, what if it really just took a shift in perspective and priorities to get back to a time where food had more meaning. Where cooking homemade meals is the norm, where eating whole foods made from natural ingredients became easier, where traditions in the kitchen come back to life, where creating memories around a dinner table instead of a TV is prioritized. I don’t think it’s impossible and I truly believe that anyone can do it.

This is the main reason I wanted to start this series on my blog. I want to show you that prioritizing eating whole foods and homemade meals does not have to be complicated. You do not need to be a 5-star chef or drop hundreds of dollars on unrealistic diet culture trends. And, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Take it one step at a time. Something as simple as starting to bake your own bread from home instead of buying store-bought. Or making one home-cooked meal per week instead of none. Or buying fresh fruits and vegetables instead of the bag of chips. Whatever your first step is, and it does not have to be sourdough bread, take it. Take it for your health. Once you take that first step, it is a gateway into a lifestyle where you begin to prioritize your health and make the process enjoyable for you a little bit at a time. Once I started making bread loaves, that turned into making homemade pizza dough, homemade pie crusts, homemade pasta, and the list just keeps growing. And that can happen for you too. The key is a shift in perspective. Looking at food as nourishment again, looking at a diet as a lifelong habit not a 1-month trend, looking at cooking as an enjoyable task and not a chore. Now, if you want your first step to be sourdough bread (which I obviously highly recommend because it’s so much fun), I suggest you stick around for this series. See me go through a new, unknown process that I was definitely nervous to start. See me make mistakes, learn from them, and keep going. See me take on this daunting new journey while still living a busy life.

I won’t lie to you, it can be frustrating. There will be many times that you mess up, there may be days that you have to get up at 2am to do your stretch and folds (and yes, I have done this many times). BUT, it is equally rewarding, therapeutic, and can be SO much fun. Throughout this series, I will be sharing everything from how I started my starter, how I’ve nearly perfected my loaf, some tips and tricks that I’ve learned along the way, resources I’ve used, different nutrition facts on sourdough, and of course the recipes I use and the beautiful sourdough creations I make. It’s a process, but I promise the outcome is deliciously worth it and your body will thank you for taking a step in the direction of feeding it more whole, minimally processed, natural foods.