It is a tra­di­tion­al bread mak­ing tech­nique that dates back to ancient Egypt. The bread is nat­u­ral­ly leav­ened with nat­ur­al microor­gan­isms (wild yeast) rather than com­mer­cial yeast. Sour­dough is effec­tive­ly a nat­u­ral­ly fer­ment­ed food, the pro­bi­otics ben­e­fit your gut.

With our long fer­men­ta­tion process (48 hours), most peo­ple (non-coeli­ac) find it very easy to digest. Fur­ther­more, the lac­tic acid nat­u­ral­ly pro­duced in sour­dough decreas­es phyt­ic acid which in turn improves the body’s abil­i­ty to absorb nutri­ents. Sour­dough (includ­ing white) is nat­u­ral­ly low­er GI com­pared to com­mer­cial bread due to the nat­ur­al acidity.

There are no preser­v­a­tives, just nat­ur­al ingre­di­ents. And as the name sug­gests, there is a nat­ur­al mild sour flavour, delicious!

Why we like a dark crust

The dark crust is a result of the long fer­men­ta­tion process and the nat­ur­al sug­ars caramelis­ing. The dark­er crust pro­duces a rich­er flavour and also adds to the chewy tex­ture, a nice con­trast to the moist crumb. The indus­tri­al­i­sa­tion of bread has favoured paler blond loaves. His­tor­i­cal­ly, pre-indus­tri­al­i­sa­­tion, dark­er loaves were favoured.

What are Ancient Grains?

Ancient grains are orig­i­nal breeds of wheat and grain dat­ing back thou­sands of years. For gen­er­a­tions humans have eat­en ancient grains and mod­ern humans with sen­si­tive tum­mies find ancient grains much eas­i­er to digest.

Some wheat vari­eties include : Emmer, Kho­rasan, Spelt, Pur­ple Wheat, Einko­rn
Non-wheat vari­eties include: Rye, bar­ley, oats
Gluten-free vari­eties include: Buck­wheat, Quinoa, Teff, Mil­let

N.B. all wheat and rye con­tain gluten, but many peo­ple with gluten sen­si­tiv­i­ties find ancient grains eas­i­er to digest.