My second favorite form of fermentation is sourdough.  I started making sourdough bread 7 or 8 years ago using the Tartine Bread book recipe.  Chad Robertson’s story about his quest for this particular boule alone was enough to draw me in but I found that the 24 hour long process became a kind of meditation.  It’s a commitment to keep a starter alive (in truth, I’ve killed many) and to have it active when you are ready to bake.  After making the levain there is not much to do for 8 hours or so making it easy enough to begin in the morning and pick it up again after work.  From there, though, it’s quite hands on for the next 6 hours to get the dough ready to shape.  Once that is done and the dough are in their baskets (the recipe makes 2 boules) the bread can go into the refrigerator to slowly rise until the next morning when they will be baked.  Even after this long the outcomes range from damn that looks good to what the hell went wrong.  That is to say, varying stages of beauty.  But it always tastes good and it reminds me that while perfection may be the goal there is joy in the journey.  More later…