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Ingredients

Grains

I can mill these on request, but if you are at the Carrboro Saturday Market just get them direct (where applicable) from Red Tail Grains. Most commercial flours you buy are likely a blend of multiple varieties or at least from different farms. The characteristics of locally grown grains can vary widely from year to year and may or may not reflect what is typical for their variety. See my Flour Strength Table for some help on how to buy or blend what you need from my available supply. Grains can also be milled to varying levels of fineness. The most coarse is a cracked grain. The next most fine would what I use for my bread flour and I think what would have been termed a "graham flour" in the old days. The next level of fineness is a pastry flour and then perhaps a cake flour. Because of my relatively small stone mills, my ability to produce super fine flour is very limited, but I can do a medium or fine sift which has a similar effect. I can crack all my grains too which produces something like a steel-cut oat rather than a rolled oat shape with minimal fines.

Wheat

• Certified Organic Day Spring Farm Catawba Hard Red Wheat: This is a bread wheat bred to do well in our climate by NC State based researchers. 2024 crop and works well as a strong all purpose flour.
• Certified Organic Day Spring Farm Heirloom Rouge de Bordeaux Hard Red Wheat: This is an variety that appeared in the southwest of France around 1864. This 2023 crop came in with a very high 14% protein.

Spelt

I'm still working on the 2023 crops from LaMac Farm (not cerified, but uses chemical free methods): soft Sungold Spelt and hard Maverick Spelt. I also have some 2024 Maverick in the cellar that I'll switch to later in the year. It was a bit of a down year because of some weed pressure and deer problems. LaMac is taking this Fall off from planting grains to get the fields in shape, but it should be back and in better shape in 2 years. Spelt is similar to golden wheat in that it doesn't have the distinctive bitter tannin flavor of a red wheat, but it has a wider range of flavors. Yes, it does have gluten, but some people tolerate it in Spelt better than they do wheat.

Other Grains

• Buckwheat: Purchased from Natural Way Mill, but source unknown. Certified Organic. Buckwheat is not a cereal grain but is actually a fruit seed that is related to rhubarb and sorrel. It is gluten-free, but like everything from my bakery is likely to have some gluten contamination.
• Oat: Product of Canada (mostly likely Saskatchewan). Certified Organic. It is gluten-free, but like everything from my bakery is likely to have some gluten contamination.
• RiceA short-grain brown rice purchased from Natural Way Mill, but source unknown.
• Rye:From 2018. Grown by Carter Farms (certified organic). The variety is Wrens Abruzzi - a combination forage/grain variety. It's an heirloom Rye with a nice mix of flavors and a smooth finish.
• Corn:I currently am using both a bakery-grown Lofthouse "flour" variety of yellow corn and some Red Tail Grains Orange Cateto Flint Corn. They two are at opposite ends of the spectrum so I use the former for it's soft texture and mild flavor and the latter for the crunch and richness.

Everything Else

Baking Soda: Plain baking soda with no Aluminum or other additives

Baking Powder: Aluminum-free Rumford Baking Powder.  Ingredients consist of Monocalcium Phosphate, Bicarbonate of Soda, Cornstarch (From Nongenetically Modified Corn).

Dairy (Milk, Butter, Yogurt): I currently use Homestead Creameryfor my milk (directly and to make yogurt) and cream and Costco for my butter. I used MapleView Milk Company for years until sadly the shutdown.

Dark Chocolate: I use bulk dark chocolate bars and chop them to create my own chunks or melt it for a filling. Ingredients: Cocoa Mass, Sugar, Cocoa Powder, Soy Lecithin (an emulsifier), contains soy, may contain traces of wheat, milk, eggs, tree nuts)

Dried Fruit:My fruit comes from Trader Joe's currently. I use their organic raisins and Turkish Apricots and also their Montmorency tart cherries.

Honey: As of August 2018, I've switched to a local supplier - King Cobra Apiary. It had been a while since I had a local beekeeper able to do the amount of honey I need and Ali is very conscientious and skilled. The bees have a diverse diet with a "delicious light honey every spring and summer, and a darker, richer honey in the fall" Also "the bees are treated with only organic pest controls, and the honey is always raw and straight from the hive".

Nuts: Most of my nuts are just conventionally grown that I get via Costco.

Olives: I use a black brined Kalamata olive from Costco. It has a rich flavor and is my favorite addition to my sourdough hearth bread.

Salt: I use Redmond Real Saltbecause it is unrefined and unpolluted. I haven't noticed a significant difference baking with it versus other salts, but I can get it in bulk and has all the trace minerals of a sea salt, without the current ocean pollutants.

Starter Culture: You might see the term starter, sourdough, or even mother, but for breads they are all talking about some probably fairly unique collection of wild yeast, bacteria, and probably other organisms. I currently label mine as "Russian Starter Culture" because it was collected from the village of Palekh - two hundred miles Northeast of Moscow - by Sourdoughs International. I had a South African culture I also baked with for a while from them, but I stuck with the Russian because of the more pronounced and cheesy flavor that my customers were looking for in a sourdough. Both cultures were recommended for use with whole grains. There are lots of ways to take care of your culture and they could vary by culture, but here are my Sourdough Culture Care Tips.

Sorghum Syrup: Sorghum Syrup has a bit of a mild molasses flavor and substitutes easily 1 to 1 for sugar. In 2024 I connected with Dan of Stuck on Cane in Efland. It had been a long time since I had a supply, but look for it now in most of my yogurt scones. It is farmed with conventional fertilizer, but without any herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides.

Sugar: I use organic sugar with a very light golden color and good flavor. It is sourced through a family owned mill in Paraguay that has been producing the finest quality Organic Whole Cane Sugar in the world for over a century. There seems to be some debate on this, but I believe this sugar is somewhere in between the molasses content of something like Sucanat/Rapadura which has all the molasses and refined sugar which has none.

Flour Strength Table

Sourdough Culture Care Tips

Basic Feeding

1. Pull out of fridge and use half (Eat other half or use in two recipes). Note: Dark liquid on top is OK - just mix it in.
2. Mix 1/2C flour and up to 3/4C water w/starter to make a batter-like consistency.Save 1/3C starter in your jar and use the rest to start your recipe.
3. Put in warm place to get working (85degrees doubles in about 2-3 hours, 95deg. would make it go faster.) Ready when a bubbly foam covers the top.
4. Starter to save in jar: Now add 1/3 C flour and enough water to make the same runny consistency as before. Let get a little active in same warm place (about 1+ hour) and then put into fridge. It will keep easily for multiple weeks, but will just be slower to restart the longer it has sat.

Recipe Notes

1. Sourdough Pancakes: 1C sourdough, pinch of salt, pinch of baking soda, 1 egg
2. Sourdough will go slower than pure yeast usually, but should double every 2 hours at 95 deg. Take starter volume and only mix in enough soaker dough to double volume of sourdough culture. Dough will be soft and pliable but still hold its shape when ready, but if it goes too long and acidity increases too much, dough could start to weaken/tear.