Mind & Body | 2022
TENDING YOUR SOURDOUGH STARTER DURING LOCKDOWN
Making Bread can be seen as a coping mechanism
By Joe Ortiz
Many people got real cozy with their sourdough starter at the I pictured many a house-bound soul beginning of Covid, but those who didn’t already own one had zooming the SPCA to find a new pet. a good attitude! It reminds me of the question an to beg a friend or a local baker for That's interviewer once asked Sylvester Stallone’s wife (I’m a precious morsel to start paraphrasing here): “How do you feel about your husband being such a macho dude?” Her answer: “It’s better than the process.
having a husband who hangs around the house all day, baking bread.” Let’s face it, while some men face real-life opponents and challenges, others take a more primal approach to help satisfy a need to give birth by turning static ingredients — flour and water — into a living creature. But can we go too far when we find ourselves treating our starter with too much love and affection? I don’t think so. Making bread can be seen as a coping mechanism. So, when my godson, Evan, asked me to help him with his sourdough country bread, I accepted wholeheartedly. Having been a baker for 20 years, I thought it best to teach him technique first. But patience is more important. He wsurely could get all the technique he needed from the internet. So, I told him: “Treat your levain (French for “chief leavening” or “mother dough”) like a little puppy dog. Feed it. See how it behaves.” He texted me back, saying that, after feedings, his new pet started to respond every 3 to 4 hours. And so, he learned about predictability through observation.
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Coastal Health & Wellness
2022
