I’m here to help people return to the long human history of eating unproblematic bread. I’m a wife, new mom, and aspiring minimalist. I love to bake, and I love to feed people. I started selling sourdough to offer a better bread option to my community, the great Mat-Su Valley of Alaska.
Bread has had quite the ride of ups and downs in recent history. From being an ancient diet staple to becoming a mass-produced commodity. From being accused of causing cancer to being resurrected in the form of whole wheat, only to be dismissed again based on paleolithic postulations, we Americans have outsmarted ourselves many times over when it comes to this simple food (look out for longer discussions/rants along this vein when I get my blog going 😇). But, I think we are coming around to the reality that bread is good or bad depending on how it’s made and what is put in it. All it needs is three ingredients. Flour. Water. Salt.
So that’s what I use. I make all of my baked goods using the wild yeast we call “sourdough starter.” Different from baker’s or commercial yeast, sourdough starter works slowly. This long fermentation process amplifies the health benefits found in grains while minimizing the common health and digestion issues many people have with commercial bread. This is how people made bread for thousands of years. And for the vast majority of us, it’s a totally viable staple diet item.
Bread has a special place in my heart because there was a time when I was afraid of it. In high school, I developed an eating disorder called orthorexia. It’s characterized by an excessive fixation on eating healthy foods. It’s basically diet culture on steroids. I restricted more and more food groups from my diet until I was eating only vegetables. My body slowly began to start shutting down. I was 92 pounds when I checked into a recovery center.
Over the years as I’ve been recovering, I have been able to reform my understanding of healthy eating. It’s not restricting food groups that the to-and-fro diet trends of the last few decades have taken turns attacking, it’s using whole, natural ingredients and exercising appropriate regulation. I find incredible joy in making wholesome foods with all-natural ingredients. And I want to share that with the community I love and the world beyond!