Our sourdough was pioneered on this island over a decade ago, and it is still baked every week with the same living culture. For eight years Casa Caravan was a shop where that bread was baked and its starter was given away freely. The shop moved on; the culture never stopped.
Before the loaves there was the grain: four and a half years of farming, milling and baking heritage grains in handbuilt stone and clay ovens. The bread you find here comes out of that work — a starter kept alive for years, flour, water, salt, and time.
Bread and gong sit under one roof for a simple reason. Both are transformation: flour and water become bread; an old metal water tank becomes a gong. The hands are the same.
A sourdough starter is a living culture of wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria that lives in flour and water. Fed regularly, it rises, falls and rises again, and it can be kept for years.
What changes a loaf is a slow fermentation. Over many hours the culture works through the dough: it builds flavour and structure, and it breaks down phytate in the grain, which leaves more of the grain's own minerals available. A naturally leavened loaf also keeps well without preservatives.
"Sourdough" on a packet does not always mean a slow, naturally leavened loaf — some bread sold under the name also contains added baker's yeast. So we don't lean on the word. We tell you what we do: our own starter, flour, water, salt, and a long, slow fermentation.
Some people tell us our bread sits better with them. We can't promise that, and we don't make health claims — slow fermentation does change what is in the loaf, and that is as far as we go.
| Feeding | Discard most of it, then feed equal weights of flour and water. At room temperature, once or twice a day; in the fridge, once a week. |
| When it's ready | It has roughly doubled, is domed and bubbly, and smells pleasantly sour — not sharp like nail-varnish. That peak is when to bake. |
| Grey liquid on top | It is hungry, not dead. Pour it off (or stir it in for more sourness) and feed. |
| After the fridge | Give it one or two room-temperature feeds before baking. |
| Flour | Wholemeal or rye wakes a sluggish starter. Change one thing at a time. |
| Water | Strongly chlorinated tap water can slow it; let it stand, or use filtered water. |
Usually under-fermentation, or a starter used before or after its peak. Judge the bulk ferment by the dough — airy, domed, wobbly — not by the clock.
Often over-fermentation, or too little shaping tension. In a warm kitchen, shorten the bulk; shape tighter; a cold overnight proof gives you control.
Check the starter first: does it double within a few hours of feeding? If not, the problem is upstream of the dough.
Use the starter younger (closer to its peak), keep it warmer, and feed it more often.
The Fermentation Lab has a sourdough calculator — hydration, starter and salt for any flour weight, plus kombucha, kefir and more.
Want to start with our culture? Our living Sourdough Starter is in the shop.
Bring your starter, your oven and your questions. In a one-to-one online session we look at what you are doing, find what is going wrong, and set you up with a routine that fits your kitchen and your week.
Write to us with what you bake and what is happening — we reply with times.
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