Bread used to be
a daily food,
not a guilty one.
The reason it changed has more to do with how most bread is made now than with bread itself.
The whole list,
start to finish.
- Unbleached flour — from a regional mill where I can.
- Filtered water
- Sea salt
- Wild sourdough starter — flour and water, fed daily for years.
Specialty loaves add only whole, recognizable ingredients: rolled oats, sesame, sunflower, flax, fresh rosemary, sharp cheddar, jalapeño, raisins, cinnamon. Nothing comes from a packet of powders.
Everything you'd
rather not be eating.
For comparison, here's what you'll find on a typical grocery-store loaf and never on mine:
- — Commercial yeast
- — Vegetable oils & emulsifiers (mono- & diglycerides, soy lecithin)
- — Dough conditioners (DATEM, azodicarbonamide, L-cysteine)
- — Preservatives (calcium propionate, sorbic acid)
- — Added sugars or high-fructose corn syrup
- — Enzymes, anti-staling agents, “natural flavors”
The slow ferment isn’t just about flavor.
It’s the bread doing real work.
Sourdough rises slowly — over 24 to 36 hours — on wild cultures rather than commercial yeast. During that time, the bacteria and yeasts in the starter do real work on the flour:
- They break down gluten. Not all of it, but enough that many people who feel uncomfortable after store-bought bread tolerate traditional sourdough well.
- They reduce phytic acid. The compound in whole grains that blocks mineral absorption — making minerals like iron, zinc, and magnesium more available to your body.
- They lower the glycemic response. Organic acids produced during fermentation mean sourdough doesn't spike blood sugar the way fast-risen bread can.
- They build flavor. The mild tang, the depth, the long finish — that's the ferment, not an ingredient.
I'm a baker, not a doctor. Nothing on this page is medical advice — if you have a wheat allergy or celiac disease, this bread isn't for you. For everyone else, real bread can be part of a real diet.
How to store it.
Keep it in a paper bag or bread box at room temperature, cut-side down. It'll be at its best for two to three days. After that, slice the rest, freeze it in a bag, and pull slices straight to the toaster as you need them.
Don't refrigerate it — the fridge is the worst place for sourdough. It stales faster there than on the counter.