By our CEO, Kathleen.
Sourdough baking is a wonderful habit in so many ways beside the obvious benefit of fresh, delicious bread. We’ve been running sourdough baking workshops in Perth two or three times per year for five years and they are probably our most popular workshop, and for good reason. Perth just can’t get enough of sourdough baking!
There are lots of things to love about sourdough baking:
- The well known health benefits of sourdough bread
- Saving money by making your own bread
- Avoiding the single use plastic of supermarket bread
- How scrummy a hot slab of sourdough with butter is!
But I’ve been reflecting on a benefit of sourdough baking that isn’t as strongly articulated in our workshops- how a sourdough baking habit helps you live a slower, less wasteful life. A ‘kinder’ life if you will, which makes it exactly the kind of skill we like to teach at Perth City Farm in our sustainability workshops.
I learnt the basics of sourdough baking at a workshop in Perth in 2018 and have been maintaining the habit on and off ever since. I’ve loved it because:
- It helps me slow down and keep my weekends calm and home centered. Baking a loaf of sourdough bread is not ‘set and forget’- it’s a two day process with steps to be done at different points over that time. Each step doesn’t take too long, but it does require a bit of planning and is much easier if you’re around your house a lot.
- For me this is a win as it encourages me to spend quiet time at home to recharge, and if I’m in the mood to socialize it means I invite friends over for hang-outs that cost a lot less than a fancy meal out.
- I find the kneading meditative, great for upper body strength and very warming on a cold day
- It’s been satisfying to notice my skills build over time- the way I shape a loaf, and seeing my loaves get bigger and fluffier inside. I invested in a couple of bench dough scrapers that make the process less messy, but also make me feel like a fancy professional!
- The effort involved means you really appreciate the end product and eat it with great appreciation and satisfaction
- It’s not much more effort to make two loaves rather than one, and that gives me a lovely thing to gift to or trade with a friend or neighbour and build social connections.
All in all I love sourdough baking and now that I’ve mastered the loaf I’m keen to experiment with pancakes and crackers.
If you’d like to give sourdough a go check out our Humanitix page to see when we’re next running our workshop ‘Sourdough Baking.’