I must be very old-fashioned. I don't consider that the ingredients flour, salt, and baking powder make bread. It is commonly called quick bread - also biscuits. We call cornbread a bread, but it is more of a cake. I consider yeast or sourdough starter essential for bread.
The interest in quick breads has come about because yeast has been unavailable. With the stay at home order, people have joined the sourdough starter movement and are baking bread. Pictures of bread are everywhere these days.
The CBC interviewed Ione Christensen whose sourdough starter has been alive since at least 1898. She was visited by the sourdough librarian for the Puratos Sourdough Library in Belgium. Ione's yeast was sent there to be tested to find out where it originated. She calls it the 120-year-old Yukon Gold Rush sourdough starter, originating with her great-grandfather who trekked over the Chilkoot Pass on his way to Dawson City during the Klondike Gold Rush. Ione is a former Canadian senator and was Commissioner of the Yukon in 1979.
There is another sourdough starter within the same age range owned by Lucille Dumbrill in Newcastle, Wyoming. Her family says it dates back to 1889 to a sheepherder's wagon near Kaycee. Lucille loves to make pancakes with her sourdough starter.
Lucille’s advice: “You just have to not be afraid if it doesn’t look good.”
Once, Carol Rolfe, who assists Lucille at home, was cleaning the fridge and opened the starter jar. The contents had turned black around the edges, clear and oily on the top. Whatever this was, Carol thought, it needed to be thrown out. Lucille instructed her to stir it all back together. It was fine.
Today's picture is a Trillium in my garden. Commonly known as Toad Trillium, it has a yellow flower. It is Trillium Luteum. It is not considered a native of Ontario - a garden escape here. This Trillium would be about 35 years old, purchased at a garden centre in Toronto.
