The rise of sourdough

Photo: Contributed

What’s with all the sourdough?

I noticed a trend, you’ve probably noticed it too, or have been part of it. In these times of self-isolation, we are baking up a storm.

And we’ve gone nutty for sourdough. 

I wondered why. Not being a baker myself, though I recently made an amazing cornbread, I asked a few foodie friends for their thoughts. Why sourdough? Here are there observations.

Kristin Peturson-Laprise, who together with her partner Martin Laprise, runs The Chef Instead in West Kelowna, and was the supplier of cornmeal for my cornbread: “In my humble opinion the boom in baking sourdough has to do with a few things. People are looking for something to do, especially a task that makes us feel like we accomplished something at the end, and baking sourdough bread takes time. I’m sure it was at the top of lots of lists for ‘what I’ll do when I have more time.’ Now many of us have plenty of it.”

Angie Quaale, owner of Well-Seasoned, a gourmet food store in Langley, who has been giving away yeast as stores run out including to my mom for UBC cinnamon buns: “Fresh baked bread, actually anything freshly baked and homemade is just plain comforting for so many people. It takes people in their minds and hearts back to a simpler time and let’s face it carbs are delicious. I think sourdough has always had a cult following, people have always wanted to try making their own.”

Jason Whitfield, pastry chef for RauDZ Creative Concepts restaurants in the Okanagan, including the Okanagan Table in Kelowna that is currently offering online orders for a variety of gourmet treats: “The sourdough craze is really all about ‘time and structure.’  We have the time now, and caring for our sourdough gives us some structure to our day. You need to get up, and is it bubbling? Does it need to be fed? Then feeding it, does it need to be halved and discarded? What to do with the discard? Time to make more bread.”

Jennifer Cockrall-King, author of Food Artisans of the Okanagan, co-author of tawâw with Shane M Chartrand, and faculty member of the Pandemic University of Writing (who recently recreated the Denny’s Super Bird for me, on her own sourdough): “It was lurking as an Instagram trend, but suddenly it was every third post in my feed. Perfect round loaves, side-lit on a linen tea towel. I know that it’s a very human thing to go back to cooking in times of stress, and comfort food is always a fallback. And many of us want to be of service, to feed people. But it was almost like… if you didn’t post a photo of your sourdough loaf, did you even ‘pandemic’?” 

The smell of fresh bread is comforting. Kneading dough can be meditative. I’m grateful that the current barter system – bread traded for a bottle of wine, or locally-made lollipops, or even an organic avocado – saves me from trying to sourdough myself.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.