People ask me all the time why our sourdough costs more and takes longer than a loaf from the grocery store — and the honest answer is that almost everything about it is slower on purpose. Here's what's actually happening during those three days between when we feed the starter and when a loaf comes out of the oven.
It starts with the starter itself, a living culture of wild yeast and bacteria that's been alive in our kitchen since we opened in 2016. Unlike commercial yeast, which is a single strain bred for speed, our starter is a whole community of organisms that ferment slowly — and that slowness is exactly what builds the flavor and texture people notice.
Day one is the levain build: we feed a portion of our starter with fresh flour and water and let it ferment for several hours until it's active and bubbly. Day two is the bulk ferment — mixing the dough and letting it rise slowly, usually overnight in a cool space, which is where most of the flavor development happens as the bacteria break down starches into simpler, more digestible compounds.
Day three is shaping, a final proof, and the bake itself. By the time a loaf goes into our deck oven, it's had nearly 72 hours from first feed to first bite. That long fermentation is also why some people who feel sensitive to regular bread tell us they tolerate our sourdough better — it's partially broken down some of the gluten and starches before it ever reaches the oven, though we're careful never to claim it's gluten-free, because it isn't.
The payoff for all that time is what you'd expect: a deeper, more complex tang, an open, chewy crumb, and a crust that actually crackles when you tear into it rather than just going soft. We could speed this up with commercial yeast and cut the process to a few hours — plenty of bakeries do — but it wouldn't be the same bread, and honestly, it wouldn't be worth putting our name on.