Sometimes I ask myself if I must be a little crazy for creating a website about sourdough bread.
After all, the internet is already overflowing with it. There are countless websites, thousands of YouTube videos, and an entire library’s worth of books devoted to the subject. For the past two years or so, I’ve watched hundreds of those videos, explored more websites than I can remember, and read my fair share of books—simply because I wanted to understand sourdough baking better.
What I discovered along the way surprised me.
In many cases, modern sourdough culture seems to have drifted quite far from what our ancestors actually did. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The bread people baked centuries ago was very different from what most of us expect today. It was designed to last. Bread often needed to survive days or even weeks, serving as a dependable staple that kept families going through hard work and long seasons.
To be honest, many of us—including me—probably wouldn’t enjoy that bread very much.
But somewhere along the way, the focus of modern sourdough baking seems to have shifted in another direction entirely. Too often, the emphasis is less on flavor and nutrition and more on appearance.
Two things in particular started driving me slightly insane.
The first is the almost obsessive focus on oven spring—the dramatic expansion of the loaf in the oven. Before baking, you’re supposed to score the dough at the perfect 45-degree angle so the loaf produces the famous “ear.” And if the ear doesn’t look right, apparently you’re supposed to try again next time until you achieve bakery-level perfection.
The second thing is the widespread belief that your sourdough starter must be fed every single day, as if it were a permanent member of the household.
That might make sense if you bake every day. But what about those of us who bake once a week?
Daily feeding means daily discarding. Every time you refresh your starter, most of it gets thrown away unless you suddenly feel inspired to make pancakes, crackers, or some other creative way to use the discard—whether you planned to or not. For me, that felt like unnecessary waste.
At some point I realized that this “system” had started to take the joy out of something that should be simple and deeply satisfying.
And that’s exactly why this website exists.
This site is my attempt to step back from the noise and return sourdough baking to something a little more practical, a little more relaxed, and hopefully a lot more enjoyable. The goal here is simple: bake bread that tastes good, looks good, and fits into a normal life.
No obsession required.
Baking sourdough is not a science project. Temperature matters, weight measurements matter, and timing matters—but bread is far more forgiving than many modern guides suggest. Small deviations rarely ruin a loaf. There is a wide range where things still work perfectly well. In reality, the only real investment is time. Good bread simply cannot be rushed. But the reward for that patience is something deeply satisfying: a loaf that tastes wonderful, fills the kitchen with the smell of fresh bread, and reminds you that some of the best things in life are still made by hand.
If that approach sounds refreshing, you’re in the right place.
And if you’d like to follow along as this project grows, please consider signing up for the newsletter.
Let’s bake some good bread,
Wilfried Voss
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