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and water—which is le in a container
to sit and, basically, grow. Periodically,
more “food” is added to the culture (also
known as a starter) by way of adding
more flour and/or water, as bacteria
and wild yeast captured by the culture
continues to grow. When the time comes
to bake bread or other goods, a portion
of the culture is doled out; the remainder
is saved and reused in later baking,
refreshed by the addition of more starter.
“It’s a throwback to how bread used to
be made,” said Juurlink. “At the turn of the
century, goldminers brought sourdough
cultures with them. When they went to the
Yukon, they slept with them to keep them
alive. That’s a real Canadian history story.”
If properly maintained, a culture can be
kept alive for decades. Juurlink cited the
Acme Bread Company in San Francisco,
which he says has a culture that has
been maintained for more than 30 years.
Juurlink himself has been working with a
culture that dates back 15 to 16 years.
Of course, bread and other grain
products aren’t the only foods that
can be prepared using variations of
fermenting techniques. The Light Cellar
in Calgary offers classes on topics such
as cheese making and meat curing, and
owner Malcolm Saunders discusses
how fermenting can be used to preserve
many types of foods.
“Fermentation increases the availability
of the nutrients and you're able to digest
the food better,” he said. “It breaks the
molecular structure of the grain.
“There’s a huge movement to the
small, the local, the DIY, the traditional.
People are looking to what their
ancestors did; a general sense of
something being lost in the modern day
and age in consumer products. What did
our ancestors eat?”
Saunders said people need to get past
their “general bacteria phobia,” even
though there are common products
like yogurt, sauerkraut and kimchi—not
to mention beer—that are created via
fermentation.
“Once you start creating your own
ferments, the whole world is open to
The Food Issue
2014
Grains
West
64
Feature
Michael Gänzle, PhD, professor and Canada Research Chair in the Agricultural,
Food and Nutritional Science department at the University of Alberta, has said
people with a gluten sensitivity, a non-medical condition, may benefit from eating
sourdough breads since the protein is more digestable.
Fermented products, including bread, have many health
benefits since nutrients are more readily available as people
consume them.