- Hi, I'm Darel Snodgrass.

If you're a bread baker like me, you're probably familiar with these envelopes of dried yeast.

However, there is another option, and that's a natural leaven.

What the French called levain, we call a sourdough starter.

It's like this goopy stuff right here.

Now, a sourdough starter is a mixure of wild yeast and bacteria, mostly lactobacillus, like you'd find in yogurt.

A starter is also unique for the place where it originated.

A San Francisco starter is different than an Italian starter, is different from the starter that you make in your own kitchen.

This particular one is from Ireland.

I got it from a friend who brought it from Ireland.

It's about 300 years old.

I've been using it for several months now.

It's a lot more complex to make bread with a sourdough starter, and it takes a lot longer because it has to have time for these complex flavors to develop.

However, you can end up with a beautiful loaf like this one here, which I started yesterday morning, and just baked this morning.

If you'd like more information about sourdough, just look it up online.

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