My Spiritual Encounter with Sourdough Bread Starter

The Start –

After we moved to our newly built farm home, I decided it was time to get back to baking sourdough bread.  I was seeing articles about sourdough bread being lower on the glycemic index than most bread, and we have several diabetics in our friend-and-family circle.  It had been quite a few years since I had a starter for sourdough, but I remembered it as a fairly easy task.  And of course, now I had all the knowledge of the internet to explore!

After looking up several articles and recipes for getting a sourdough starter going, I determined that I wanted to be a purist about it, and not use the shortcuts offered for adding yeast, potatoes, or other boosts.  Nope.  Flour and water for me.  Simple, basic and easy, right?  So began my journey.  One wide mouth quart canning jar and a bit of fine netting and a jar ring and I was ready.  Mix ¼ cup all purpose flour with one quarter cup water, feed it every 12 hours, throw away a portion, and before long you will have captured the natural yeasts and fermentation bacteria in your kitchen and have a nice yeasty smelling bubbly bread starter.  Be patient, it may take several days.

The Wait

And I tended my newborn starter, following the instructions carefully.  It took many days to start getting a little bit of activity – some bubbles and a faint yeasty odor.  By this time, I was tired of throwing flour and water away, so I found recipes that use starter that is not ready for baking, but useable as a flour/water mix.  I started making pancakes, waffles and other goodies to use up the mixture I had to deduct from my starter.  Since my husband had sworn off carbs to work on lowering his A1C, I ended up with a freezer load of toaster waffles!  Still, my starter was not ready for the real goal, baking sourdough bread.  So, I started researching the internet to find answers. 

1. It was later in the year when I started, so the house was cooler than the ideal temperature for developing a good sourdough starter.  So, I started storing the jar in the oven with only the oven light on.
2. The house was new and so it probably did not readily offer up the yeasty molecules at the rate that an established home and kitchen would harbor.
3. I had not invested in a water filter, and our water comes from a chlorinated public water supply.
4. When I reached out to my family and friends, I found that most of them used yeast or potatoes to get started.
5. The easiest way to get a good sourdough starter is to ask a friend to share theirs.  Easy-peasy. But I just wasn’t ready to give up my own starter.

The Spiritual

As I was trying to find out why my sourdough starter was not cooperating, an analogy came to mind. 

I recently started attending a Bible study group at our church.  I was struck by how often I have determined to study my Bible on my own, and what a difficult thing it is to accomplish.  Even with a study Bible, a study guide, or even notes from a prior review of the topic, it is hard to work through what I feel I should be getting from my study.  It is easy to put off picking up my Bible. It is easy to get distracted from the verses I am intending to explore.  It is easy to have questions about the passages that don’t seem to be answered by my resources. 

How much easier my study becomes when I join a group of people to study and learn.  I can ask my questions and get other opinions and bounce ideas around.  Just as I knew all along, but stubbornly resisted asking for someone to share, my study becomes so much easier when I join a Bible study group.  We may not always agree with one another on every topic in our study journey, but the lively discussions keep it going and challenge my brain to work harder. It also helps keep me accountable to continue.   

And, like my understanding of my faith, my sourdough starter eventually grew stronger.  As I tend to my study, I become stronger in my faith.  As I tended to my starter, it became strong enough to make the bread rise.

Final Thoughts

Every analogy fails somewhere, and here is this one:  I did finally get the results I was striving for with my sourdough bread.  I now have a lovely starter that has been providing yummy loaves for months now.  While my study efforts have improved, they are certainly far from ready to say they are a success. I must keep tending to my study, just as my starter still requires regular attention, or it will fail. 

Just as the Bible tells us that milk comes before solid food, we must continue to grow in our faith.

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.  But solid food is for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.“ 

Hebrews 5:12-14

Have you had similar experiences with group Bible study?  I’d love to hear your comments about both Bible learnings and bread making!  

If you have a sourdough starter and would like to try the bread recipe I love, sign up for my newsletter and comment – Sourdough Bread Recipe.