I make sourdough bread for myself and my family so we don’t have to get bad bread from the shops. I usually bake about three loaves of bread a week, and I need to have a system in place for this.
Making sourdough bread requires maintaining a good healthy sourdough starter and always available for the next loaf. If you run out of it, you can’t make bread. Every time I take a bit out for a new loaf, I have to feed it with a proportional amount of flour and water.
Right after feeding my starter I also have to feed what I took out for the loaf and let it rest so it activates. And this is the crucial step, and the most difficult one.
You see, the sourdough starter is always in the fridge. In a controlled environment that helps keep it in good health and active enough but not too active. On the other hand, the portion I take out for the new loaf stays out of the fridge until it doubles its size which is the indicator that it’s now active enough to start making the bread.
I could just keep my starter in the fridge for a long time, feeding it once in a while to keep it alive and make bread whenever I feel like—if I get to feel like making bread at all. There are quite a lot of people who keep their starter in the fridge without making any bread.
The act of getting the starter out of the fridge, taking a portion out into another container, feeding them both, and putting them away, one in the fridge, and the other one to rest, is a bit of an effort and somewhat time-consuming.
The interesting thing is that once you take that step to feed them, there’s no way back. A new loaf is coming no matter what. The clock starts clicking, and the cycle is going. This is because not continuing the process means that once the portion that’s out is ready can’t wait too long. It has to be used or the effort is wasted.
Therefore, feeding the starter and the portion of my starter for the new loaf is the only step I focus on and direct all my energy to. The rest happens because it has to happen. I have to make it happen.
It’s tempting not to do it, always. At the end of the day, I always go to the shops for other stuff, and it’s way easier to grab a loaf from the shelf and put it into the trolley than make one at home. It’s a feeling I have to deal with all the time. Although I’ve become better at ignoring it the more loaves I make.
Of course, this is true for everything we do. Keeping the guitar tuned and out of the case ready to be played. Putting the running shoes on so we’re ready to go out. Getting our workspace ready and up to date and shutting up distractions. Sending that email or making that phone call.
There’s always one step, the first one, that makes everything either flow to the next one if we take it, or keeps us on doing nothing if we don’t.