Sourdough bread uses the free yeast that is in the atmosphere to naturally turn flour, salt and water into a wholesome food that sustains the body and feeds the gut biome helping create long-term health.

Fast food it is not. If you aren't prepared to put time and love into the preparation of your food then don't read any further, other than to see how some effort and study can result in a food that our great-grandparents would recognise as their daily staple.

I once read that if you fed a person on a diet of flour, salt and water they would eventually become emaciated and die. If you take those same ingredients and add wild yeast and time, turning it into a loaf of natural sourdough bread baked in an oven, that same person would prosper and grow.

We only need to add a free ingredient, wild yeast, a totally natural product and we turn bread-making into a farming operation, farming microbes like all farmers do, only our microbes are wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria.

Where did they come from? They are on the flour, on our hands and in the air. We just can't see them. We are such fools, thinking that if we can't see something its not there. The microscopic world is way more diverse than the one we can see, as good farmers know, when it comes to their soil.

What is involved in making sourdough bread?

The process begins with constructing your own sourdough starter. Best to use good quality rye flour (organic) for your starter and a sterile jar with a lid. 100 gms of rye flour and 100 gms of chlorine-free water, mixed together, lid on and leave in a warm room for 24 hours.

And then the fun begins.

Persist. It will be worth it in the end.

For a background explanation and recipes for making sourdough bread go to https://www.sourdough.co.uk/. There will be other websites that show you everything you need to know but this one is lovely. Be sure to check out the section simply labelled 'Gut'.

Keep asking great questions ...