If you want to read my latest column on my new pandemic sourdough journey, click here.
I'm more of a hunter than gatherer. Archeologists and other smart people who study such things have concluded that in terms of calories provided, gatherers have always been more important than hunters. It's just that gatherers (usually women), went about their work of keeping the clan alive with little fanfare.
Hunters (men), on the other hand, have always made a big to do about the occasional mastodon they dispatched. Sure, it was a lot of meat, but most of it spoiled and three dudes were maimed in the process. It's the greens and tubers and occasional nest robbing of the women that kept hunter-gatherer society on the path toward world domination, rather than extinction.
Sourdough bread is more of a gatherer thing. Grain was gathered, and is now farmed. Sourdough fermentation is a by product of wild bacteria and yeasts that live on the grains, as well as the wind. The hunter in me was never too much interested in sourdough, beyond the pleasure of eating it. That changed in March when the COVID-19 pandemic forced all of us to isolate in place. Suddenly, nurturing a sourdough starter with it's daily feedings and kitchen temperature maintenance suddenly seemed feasible.
I'm all in now. This pandemic may have permanently ruined me for grocery store bread.