Michael Hilburn
Elaine Boddy, Author of The Sourdough Whisperer

“There are so many experiences and stories of lockdown and you know, I know, how important baking was to so many people. Sourdough in particular. We know that when we feed our starter it comes alive. We know that we renew it and we see it respond, and we create a dough and we see it respond. And that life and renewal that came out of it, I think, was also another positive element. People going through the confusion and that awful time that we had. But also then the connection that it gave people… it was huge and it brought a lot of us together.”

Elaine Boddy, Author of The Sourdough Whisperer
Michael Hilburn
Annie Clapper of The Family Crumb

“In February of 2020, I was looking at commercial spaces, building out a business plan, and trying to decide between moving into a space or building a space… and I was like set to meet in March to create our own space in Bentonville. And then, obviously, March 2020 everyone’s lives changed significantly and my my choice either scale way up and take a huge gamble and buildout a bakery in the middle of a global pandemic or scale way back and move back into my house, and bake out of my house again…”

Annie Clapper of The Family Crumb
Baker, Entrepreneur, Forager
Michael Hilburn
Alexandra Allen of Wild Woman Bakery and LUV ...

“I use my sourdough starter, I don’t use my discard when I’m making cookies… and I maintain my acidity in my feedings, so i’m never going to have a super sour. If I’m looking for that well then I’m going to look for a grain that will be a little more active faster, and maybe leave it to bloom a little longer… and see how the flavor is changing and imparting on the cookie dough.”

Alexandra Allen of Wild Woman Bakery and LUV Cookie Co.
Author, Educator, Sourdough Influencer
Michael Hilburn
Anita Šumer of Sourdough Mania

“Sourdough…. It’s like a meditation for me, it’s getting my hands into the dough, feeling the dough, connecting with the earth, connecting with the Spirit. And it’s helped me so much. It still does. This is, perhaps, not the material point of sourdough, it’s more like a spiritual one.”


Anita Šumer of Sourdough Mania
Michael Hilburn
Andrew Heyn, Baker and Millwright

“We opened those bags of fresh flour, it was like ‘holy smokes!’ We’d never experienced something like this before. We had always just had white flour that was all about function and performance and not so much about aroma and flavor. And so we said, ‘we’ve got to do this, this is like nothing we’ve ever experienced before.’ So that was the impetus.”

Andrew Heyn, Baker and Millwright

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Hannah Dela Cruz, Author of Sourdough Every Day

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Hannah Dela Cruz, Author of Sourdough Every Day

“I think I really relate with people who picked up sourdough during the pandemic. I think sourdough, for me personally, provided a lot of structure in my life at a moment when I was really lost and didn't know what was next for me. I would wake up everyday, feed my starter, see what was going on with it, go to the blogs and read about it, and learn something new about it everyday. It was kind of a distraction at the time and also a really great way to have structure in my life at a time that was really confusing and I didn't have any.”

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Emilie Raffa of The Clever Carrot

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Emilie Raffa of The Clever Carrot

“Sourdough taught me….that it’s OK to do things differently…it’s OK to mess up, it’s OK not to have the perfect score on my loaf, it’s OK not to have oven spring somedays. All these things teach you valuable lessons and they take you to the next level. I really think it’s a journey that is ongoing for everybody and it’s so powerful to share with others because you end up learning so much from each other.”