Friends sometimes ask to see “the mother,” but if I’m feeding it, doesn’t that make me the mother? At least, that’s what I thought— until I remembered every named starter I’ve ever had… died. RIP. Only the nameless fella here survived a CPR. Ferments are the wild, wonderful little life-forms that just keep going, giving, and occasionally exploding out of the jars. At the end of the day, I’m just here because I love naturally leavened bread so much, it’s practically part of my life.

朋友们有时会想看看“母种”，但如果是我在喂养它，那我不就成了“母亲”吗？至少，我是这么想的——一直到我想起那些我曾命名的所有酵母……都挂掉了。只有这里这个没名字的小家伙，在一次“心肺复苏”后幸存了下来。发酵物是狂野而奇妙的小生命，它们不断生长、不断供给，有时还会从罐子里“炸”出来。归根结底，我之所以在这里，只因为我太爱天然酵母面包了，它几乎已经成为我生活的一部分。