Exponential Growth

I recently received news that the Loughborough culture has made it to Texas, USA.

This week saw the launch of the Exponential Growth project in Loughborough. On Wednesday afternoon, fifteen people took part in sourdough bread-making workshops, making a variety of wheat, spelt and rye loaves. The bread came out delicious, if a little characterful in shape. Yesterday the bread was available to taste at a stall on Loughborough Market. Many passersby stopped for a bite and there was a lot of interest in the project. Over fifty people took some Loughborough culture away with them, far more than I had anticipated. By the end of the day I had run out of containters and recipe booklets, and was handing out starter culture in plastic cups. Next week the map will be updated.

Over the past few weeks, I have been growing the Loughborough culture. My first attemtpt at growing the culture resulted in an incrediably unappealing smell: I had left a plastic lid covering the culture, starving it of oxygen. A living culture needs to breathe, and I had suffocated it. Refreshing the culture with fresh flour and water every day and covering it with a cloth repaired the damage. I now have two bubbling bowls of starter culture.

I have been trying out recipes for sourdough bread in preparation for the launch events next week. I am learning that the two essential things in sourdough baking are Time and Temperature. My first rye loaf was pretty good, but I burnt the top. I made a large and delicious wheat sourdough and a  small rye seeded loaf. The experiments continue.

This week the Loughborough Cultures were started in the Radar office.

Two cultures are being started with local rye and wheat flour ground at  Claybrooke Water Mill.