A Year of Sourdough: How It All Started

On April 30th, 2024, a dear friend of ours gave my husband a jar with some white-ish goop in it and said, "tell Jill to make bread." When I asked about a recipe to go along with it, he told me that she said to throw some flour and water in the jar and let it grow. Then make bread. Hmmmm.

Well, if you know me at all, that's not how I roll. I have to see a recipe to understand what's going on, and from there, I can tweak it if needed. This has been a longstanding rule in our house as I raised my kids, especially my girls. First try a new recipe exactly the way it's written, then you have permission to change it up. Well, I didn't even have a recipe!

The First Steps

This pushed me to various resources, where I immersed myself in countless videos and browsed through numerous blogs and reels, while also consulting classic sourdough baking books. The most challenging part was grasping the concept of a sourdough starter. This simple mixture of flour and water fermenting over time, drawing in wild yeast and bacteria crucial for that distinct sourdough taste, became my single focus for quite some time.

I gathered my essentials: King Arthur's unbleached organic all-purpose flour, filtered water, and a clean glass jar. After mixing the ingredients, I eagerly created my first starter in mid May of 2024. It was quite fun to feed and observe it bubbling and expanding. My kitchen turned into a crazy science lab, filled with jars of starter—each one a potential loaf of delicious bread, signifying hard work, patience, and hope.

My sourdough starter finally took off in late May.

Soon enough, I progressed to shaping and baking bread. I practiced kneading and folding techniques, watched numerous tutorials, and made my share of mistakes (and I still do!). To perfect the dough texture, I set tangible goals. Ideally, the dough should be slightly sticky but manageable, consistently ensuring it wouldn't end up ruined in the process.

The Learning Curve

Navigating the learning curve of baking has been both challenging and rewarding. My early loaves had unique characteristics—some flat like pancakes, while others posed as hearty crusaders with a crusty exterior but lacked that classic sourdough flavor. Each baking session became a lesson, teaching me invaluable insights.

A consistent routine proved essential for the development of my starter. I learned the power of patience—allowing the dough to rise slowly and coax out more profound flavors. I kept a sourdough journal where I would record everything, noting what worked and what led to the ugly dense and flat loaves. The journal was a huge help throughout those first few months, and I often have revisited those early entries to remind myself of the many lessons I've learned.

A fresh loaf of sourdough bread cooling for an hour is torture to my family.

The Start of a Small Ministry

As I honed my skills, the rewarding moments started to surpass the challenges. The entire process became addicting: the mixing, folding, and the anticipation building up to the bake. The first time I pulled a perfect loaf from the oven, I felt an overwhelming sense of amazement that I was even involved. Seriously. From water, flour and salt to a beautiful edible piece of art.

Early on in this journey, as I got into the habit of baking one loaf a day, I had the overwhelming desire to give loaves away to friends and neighbors. So since my family loved their daily loaf and would never consider watching me give that away, I started baking two loaves a day — one to keep, and one to give away. God put it on my heart to pray for the people I gave loaves to throughout the four day process, and I based all of my prayers on a passage from Colossians:

9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Colossians 1:9-12

All of a sudden, sourdough transformed from a hobby into an easy way to pray for those around me, to reach out to neighbors I hadn't befriended yet, to connect with others at church in a way I hadn't prior to this. I soon saw the need to bake more, so I increased my count to four loaves a day. It was around that time that I saw a reel on Instagram where a baker said, "If you're baking four loaves a day, it's really not much more work to do eight loaves. Dare you!" Well, I couldn't pass up a challenge, so for two whole weeks I baked eight loaves a day. It proved to be way too much for me, and my family confirmed it as they threatened to hold an intervention to get me to stop, ha. Four loaves is the sweet spot for me, and I have continued to this day with that routine.

Expanding the Horizons

As I gained confidence, my curiosity took over and I began experimenting with all sorts of recipes, adding herbs, roasted garlic, seeds, and of course, jalapeño and cheddar to enhance my loaves. Each new flavor turned baking into a fun challenge, enabling me to add surprises to my creations.

Then aside from the normal loaves and their inclusions, I enjoyed dipping my toes into sourdough's versatility. Discard recipes became a staple in our house as I learned how to make sourdough pancakes, waffles, bagels, crackers, rolls, granola, croutons, tortillas, scones, and even sourdough pizza. (Documenting all of my sourdough bakes on social media has been a fun way to preserve my progress — you can find my sourdough history on Instagram—@crazyjmom) and TikTok — @crazyjsourdough.)

Reflecting back

Sourdough fell into my lap days after the end of a long eight months of planning for our daughter's wedding. Perfect timing. God gave me a teeny tiny prayer ministry and a way to bless people that continues to teach me every day about the importance of prayer.

Being available and willing to be used by God in any capacity is the really the key. What skills has God given you that you could use for His glory? Asking God how He can use the gifts and skills He's given you is the first place to start. ❤️