get some free whole grain sourdough starter!
If you’re doing 12 Steps to Whole Foods, and you’ve done Chapter 9 on whole grains, I have in the past recommended my friend Gwen’s purebreadsourdough.com for sourdough start. I have had mixed reviews about the customer service, though.
My friend Jim Simmons, author of Original Fast Foods (see book reviews on the site), offers a sourdough start and even send it to you FREE with a stamped, self-addressed envelope! I got some dehydrated starter from him and made a nice fresh starter now in my fridge. Yesterday I made four-grain focaccia bread from the starter that my family gobbled up as a main dish for dinner with salad, plus two loaves of regular bread. Spray it with olive oil and lots of herbs and garlic, YUMMY and without any commercial yeast–just naturally leavened. (Instructions for focaccia and other options are in Ch. 9.) Yeast-free bread is important because commercial yeasts are bred to grow quickly. The problem is, they don’t always die in the gut, so they interact with sugars to breed fungus, mold, yeast overgrowth, bacteria, and all kinds of mycotoxins (byproducts of those populations) that cause a host of health problems.
We do this often, have a sourdough focaccia dipped in olive oil/balsamic, with a salad, for a VERY inexpensive dinner everyone likes. I time the bread to come out at dinner time so the bread is warm. Grains are so inexpensive when bought in bulk. I used wheat, spelt, rye, and oat groats yesterday. Don’t use more than 20% spelt, as it is low in gluten.
Here’s the address to get your sourdough starter–please consider enclosing a few dollars to support Jim and this very kind public service, and don’t forget your self-addressed, stamped envelope. Tell him hi from GreenSmoothieGirl.com:
Original Fast Foods
1221 N 1270 E
American Fork, Utah 84003
If you’re not enjoying easy, homemade sourdough bread, it’s okay to skip to Ch. 9 and try it! And here’s a tip: when you have your fresh starter made up, freeze a cup of it in case you neglect your starter in the fridge so long and want to start over later. Your starter from Jim will come with detailed instructions (and you have instructions in Ch. 9 as well for feeding a starter, making sweet bread, pretzels, and more).
Have fun!
does anyone think gluten, dairy, egg free sour dough bread is possible? HA–what about just gluten free sour dough bread? other than that–we limit but gotta keep our yeasted buckwheat bread.
I feel kind of wussy reading this post because I have a starter in my fridge but I have never used it. I believe everything about the commercial yeast being bad and all, but my friend who gave me some starter had a real hard time getting her bread to turn out decent. So I’ve been really ambivalent, lazy, and unmotivated to try it out. Maybe I’ll just eat flat bread for the rest of my life!
I am so glad to see this!! I have never ordered from the lady you recommended ….. Anyway I will definately be sending my stamped envelope!
Thank you!
I would love to make this bread for my family however, I’ve recently been watching a TV show called “Know the Cause” and the host talks continually about the dangers of all grains as being full of mold (thus mycotoxins)as they are put in a silo and sprayed with fungicides which contain mercury–even organic, yikes! what do we do?
Patti, grains full of mold: if they were, they wouldn’t sprout. I like that sourdough bread is soaked. I dislike fear mongering as “Know the Cause” does. What we do is eat whole foods (including grains) without fear, having educated ourselves but staying away from fringe opinions. I think the evidence is clear that eating whole grains promotes health in many ways. If you have cancer and want to eat completely alkaline, or if you’re doing the candida diet, and if you can live without bread, then by all means do so.
But for most of us, WHOLE GRAINS AND LEGUMES in breads are good food high in nutrition and vastly superior to the main dishes and carbs being served up in the Standard American Diet.
Tricia, next time you make some sourdough, put a baggie in the freezer. That way if you neglect your starter forever (I’ve done that, too), you can start some new.
Lala, good luck. Naturally leavened (true sourdough) bread is tricky enough with high-gluten grain. If you made it with all spelt or Kamut (low- or no-gluten), you’d have a really, reaaaaaaally dense brick-like bread.
Egg and dairy free, though, not a problem.
Lala,
We’ve purchased a gluten free sourdough bread before that my wife said is the absolute closest to real bread she’s tasted. It comes from Sami’s Bakery http://www.samisbakery.com. It was made with millet flour & brown rice flour (amazingly, no potato starch or tapioca starch). It’s not made in a GF facility, though.
If you try experimenting, ideally you should replace one ingredient at a time. I’ve made bread machine GF bread using a homemade egg substitute (either 1/2 banana or 1 T flax ground mixed in 2 T water) and homemade seed milk (with pulp, and I’ve even watered it down).
Patti,
According to Dr. Cousens: spelt, amaranth, quinoa, millet, buckwheat, and wild rice are not stored, and don’t pose the problems you mentioned.
Jayroo,
Can you make the sourdough bread out of those grains? If so, do you have to grind them yourself in to flour?Do you know if you can combine these grains in the sourdough starter?
Thanks!
Lala,
There are a lot of gluten-free sourdough experiments out there. I currently have four different kinds of flours bubbling away in my kitchen, trying to see which ones grow the best. Others are further along, though. A google search on “sourdough gluten free bread” turns up a couple of links right on top.
Certainly if you can’t get a decent rise with sourdough alone, you can always help it along in the last stage with a bit of baking soda or powder. With the acid from the sourdough starter, the reaction should be pretty intense. Fun to watch, at least!
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Patti:
We Bought some wheat from an Amish friend in Indiana that he put into shocks and left in the field about a month and then threshed and bagged for us. we know it is the best.
I wanted to add an update to this post…I just received my dehydrated starter from Jim and he now asks for $5.00 and he does not include instructions. Just a note telling you you can find instructions in his book.
Is this still available? Getting a free starter?