Hey friends, so we have talked a lot about sourdough on this podcast and I've done lots of videos on sourdough. There's blog posts

But there are a few pieces of the sourdough process that I've just kind of gotten by

With over the years, you know

I kind of understand what's happening or maybe I don't understand at all and sometimes it causes me problems and other times

I just make do but since we're doing a deep dive on food the season

I wanted to get my questions

Answered once and for all and get really deep into the nitty gritty of how sourdough works

So I am so excited to have

Karen Newman with me today she literally wrote the book on sourdough science and she has a lot of wisdom to share so welcome Karen

Thank you. I'm so glad to be here

So tell us a little bit about yourself. You're you're not necessarily a homesteader, right?

You're you're more of a you have kind of an academic background with this interest in the science behind bread

So kind of tell us how you got interested in this topic

Well, I would

Inbellish that to say I'm kind of a mini homesteader in an urban setting

I have a little urban farm with my chickens and I grow as many vegetables as I can and fruit trees

But I do live in a city where I can walk to a restaurant and cafe so it's a little

Ha ha ha not exactly the same thing. Yeah, but it's okay

But my background is I'm a scientist. I'm I have a PhD in molecular and cellular biology

And the type of research that I've studied and that I do is

Involves a lot of culturing of microbes yeast and bacteria and that's exactly what you find in a sourdough starter yeast and bacteria

live in the starter many different species are in a community together in that little jar and

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