Lessons In Sourdough

Credit: @theomzproject

So, I realize I’ve come this late (it was a big thing during the pandemic) but recently, I’ve started making my own sourdough bread.

It’s a fascinating activity to take on - a much longer and much more involved process than I originally expected. From start to finish (i.e. from levain preparation to actual baked bread), it takes about 36 hours, because there are a number of steps to be followed, each with specific time requirements, particular results to be achieved at each step, and plenty of waiting in between. 

In addition, you have to be diligent, thoughtful and methodical throughout the entire process. A mismeasurement here or added time there can materially impact the quality of the final bread (at least in my amateur hands). 

So, very definitely, it’s work to bake bread, particularly sourdough bread. The fact is that it would be so much easier to just pop down to the local supermarket or bakery and buy a loaf. Plenty of time saved, less variability in the product and equally delicious outcomes. 

But that misses the point.

The point of baking isn’t that it’s easier. 

It’s because it’s an education - it teaches me something I didn’t know before. 

It's because it’s difficult - it forces me to do the work and experience the hardships and pitfalls and the challenges of this specific project.

It’s because it can be unpredictable - I need to understand every stage, what and why things happen, adapt on the go, if needed, so that when I get it right, it means that much more.

To be clear, it definitely is fun but it’s also very definitely work. And at the end of it all, there’s the satisfaction of having created something so profound, so to speak, with just 3 ingredients (flour, water and salt). That’s something, in and of itself.

I think that’s why we take on difficult things - why we should take on difficult things. The act of learning, the act of intentional work, the act of creation. These things all matter.

There’s no point doing things that are easy. It matters that we do things that are difficult.