ALASKA TRENDS

Let’s not overstate the explosion of popularity that sourdough bread enjoyed in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes, as Vanessa Orr’s “Sourdough Lives” reports, home baking experienced such a surge in March 2020 that stores ran short of baker’s yeast. Bakers improvised with wild yeast, which in symbiosis with acid-secreting bacteria gives sourdough its distinct flavor and texture.

However, an article from a month before the COVID-19 lockdown was already reporting that sourdough bread was on the rise (so to speak). And, as is not uncommon for such trend pieces, the same phenomenon was reported years earlier, a perennial novelty.

Sourdough has been perpetually popular in Alaska at least since the Gold Rush of 1898. Much of that history is documented in Susannah T. Dowds’ 2017 master’s thesis for a degree in Northern Studies from UAF, which informed “Sourdough Lives” and this edition of Alaska Trends. By counting references in newspapers, Dowds documented an explosion in mentions after Klondike stampeders survived their first winter. Many of those were reprints of a March 1899 wedding announcement from a Koyukuk River gold camp that recorded this marriage vow:

I’ll love and protect her, this maiden so frail

From those sourdough bums on the Koyukuk trail.

Ever since, sourdough has been part of Alaska’s cultural identity, both the food and the name. Even cheechakos can participate with little more than a jar of flour and water, tended carefully like a microbial pet.

Now, before this introduction goes stale, here are some hot and fresh facts about sourdough.

To read about a business that dates to the Klondike Gold Rush, choose page 98.

For a company that rose to the challenge of COVID-19, choose page 51.

Official Documentation

Newspapers compiled from the Library of Congress, "Chronicling America" Archive, and the California Digital Newspaper Collection document the use of "Sour Dough" twice in Alaska before 1897 and twelve times in 1899.

50

FOOD PLACE PERSON METONYMY

30

10

0

1865 1870

Original Recipe

The 1st recorded use of sourdough was in 1500 BCE by Egyptian bakers

1875 1880 1885

Sourdough Tourist

by 1894 referred to visitors to Yellowstone Park who brought their own provisions

1890 1895 1900

Sourdough Stiffs

or "sourdough boys" became terms for old timers by 1898

Sourdough bread sales totaled $326M by 2019, growing 11% between 2015 & 2019 while total bread sales remained flat

SOURCE: Nielsen

On the Menu

Sourdough bread appeared on 11.6% of restaurant menus in 2009, growing to 14.3% in 2019

SOURCE: Nielsen

Rising Dough

The market value of sourdough increased nearly 10x from 2014 to 2018 from $298.7M to $2.4B

SOURCE: Grand View Research

Last Frontier

50 bacteria & 20 yeast species have been found in sourdough cultures, but in all likelihood, other undiscovered bacteria and yeasts exist in starters all over the world.

In 1 tsp

1 teaspoon of sourdough starter harbors aprox 50M yeasts & 5B lactic acid bacteria “Sourdough” is in the name of

59

active Alaska businesses

Alaska Sourdough Peat Alaska Sourdough Roofing Alaska Summer Solstice Sourdough Cappy’s Sourdough Frontiersman Sourdough Golden Fins & Sourdoughs Midnight Sun Sourdough Old Sourdough Studio Quintessential Sourdough Publishing Sourdough Air Service Sourdough Alaska Sourdough Auto Leasing Sourdough Bar and Liquor Store Sourdough Bowl Sourdough Builders Sourdough Campground & Cafe Sourdough Consulting Sourdough Creek B&B Sourdough Creek Outfitters Sourdough Dan’s Sourdough Dave’s Sourdough Dru’s Sourdough Electrical Services Sourdough Elevator Sourdough Express Inc. Sourdough Forwarding Sourdough Fuel Sourdough Fuel Services Sourdough Goldens of Alaska Sourdough Initiative Sourdough Leasing Sourdough Mike’s Metal Works Sourdough Mine Sourdough Mining Co Sourdough Properties Sourdough Property Preservation Sourdough Resource Sourdough Saggies Sourdough Sam’s Sourdough Sealcoating Sourdough Sisters Sourdough Solar Sourdough Solutions Sourdough Speed & Trim Sourdough Studio Sourdough Sue’s Bear Lake Lodging Sourdough Sunrise B&B Sourdough Supply Sourdough Telecommunications Consulting Sourdough Tours of Ketchikan Sourdough Transfer Sourdough Welding & Fabrication Sourdough’s Taxidermy Art Sourdough-Ingersoll Sourdough Jack’s Home and Land Sales STR/Sourdough The Old Sourdough Downtown The Sourdough Mercantile Wild Alaska Sourdough