Hi Kate,
I was reading and catching up on Permies and reactivated my account just because I discovered you are writing a new book and was seeking input!
I learned how to bake with sourdough when my oldest was a toddler over a decade ago from WAPF bloggers Wardee Harmon and Katie Kimball, Peter Reinhart’s books and the Fresh Loaf forums. I never did get into a good grove though till I read Shannon Stonger’s Traditional Foods for the Frugal Family (or was it her Off Grid Homestead?) and your own Off Grid Kitchen. What was hampering me was my own health issues, perfectionism, feeling like I needed precise measurements, and never having a good starter routine. From Shannon, I learned to have a rhythm to my baking day and from you I learned to retain only a small piece of starter (often times it’s only a tablespoon and I build it up for the next time I anticipate baking) and how to tell what the dough is supposed to feel like so that I didn’t have to worry about measuring. I also learned through experience to add a pinch or two of yeast to all my loaves so that no matter what the quality of the starter the dough will still rise even while there is a long and slow fermentation. Using your method of keeping just a bit of starter, I have successfully kept a starter going now for a couple of years! Never could keep a starter alive long term before.
If I make a levain and don’t get around to making bread, no problem, we eat it as pancakes. I rarely venture into other sourdough goods these days, though there was a period of time when my children were all younger, we lived in an apartment, and I made many sourdough based foods (pies, muffins, tortillas, etc). When we moved out to the country, got animals, and the children increased in number, grew and needed more academics, I honestly stopped being able to make as much from scratch and stuck to bread, pancakes and sourdough as the acid soaker for oats and whatever else.
That said, even now during busy periods or when I have health relapses, baking bread goes to the bottom of the priority list and I end up buying sprouted bread at the grocery and that’s a lot more expensive. Or I end up making biscuits and that’s more time consuming, ironically. I have tried the 5 minutes a day method with sourdough and sometimes I have just stuck a loaf in the fridge, but the end results are always dense bricks that even my super tolerant family does not enjoy eating and the “bread” goes to the chickens. Freezing already baked loaves usually ends up in them being wasted too. I am kind of experimenting with a completely no knead overnight loaf, but I have never really had success with a dough that didn’t have some stretches and pulls and a little bit of kneading. So, maybe I am chasing a pipe dream. We need bread to fill up hollow legs ha ha! My husband and I can get along without carbs just fine, but even things like potatoes don’t fill my children up like a whole meal loaf of bread does and they eat a loaf at a time!
I don’t understand why even with being on the grid with all the modern conveniences I have such a hard time keeping up with bread through every season. I would like to rectify the situation of letting go of bread baking during less ideal times and a book that shows me how to do it would be super helpful. I also never did find a truly great sourdough hamburger bun recipe. Plus, I would like to have a book that assembles the collective wisdom on this topic to be able to pass on to my children: books that will help them avoid having to “reinvent the wheel” are always valued and purchased in quantity for their hope chests - and so far your Off Grid Kitchen and Cheesemaking have made it into that category.
Oh and one of my children may need to cut out gluten permanently. I know I can figure this out and I have Shannon’s works that are very helpful with this, but I will happily read anything you contribute to the subject. You both share a very practical for large families approach to getting stuff done!
