This November Foragable Raleigh teamed up with with Sour Bakery’s Janee Allen to teach folks in the community all about sourdough! During this sold-out workshop, held at Rebus Works, Janee taught participants how to grow and care for their own sourdough starter and use it to make sourdough crackers and scones. Everyone got to try samples of her baked goods, mix up their own cracker and scone dough to take home to bake, and grow their own sourdough starters.
Janee Allen is the owner and operator of Sour Bakery, a Durham bakery which specializes in wild yeast based breads and pastries. Wild yeast, as opposed to artificially cultured yeasts used in baking and brewing, naturally occurs around us on surfaces and in the air. Sourdough is made by cultivating this wild yeast using a mixture of fermented water and flour, or sourdough starter. Each of the twenty participants experienced this fermentation process first-hand, making their flour and water mixtures and leaving them to become starters. Participants weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty, literally hand-mixing and kneading their dough for future scones and crackers.
Foragable Raleigh is proud to partner with local food business owners like Janee Allen to offer events that bring the local community together to promote skill-building and connect folks to their local foodways!
Janee Allen of Sour Bakery started baking sourdough bread over 10 years ago when she lived in Seattle. Since coming to North Carolina, her baking and her business have thrived, bringing the wild sourdough tang to our North Carolina community!
Rebus Works is a joint project originally founded by local photographer Shonna Greenwell and printmaker Lee Moore. A space rooted in local community, Rebus works regularly features work of area artists while also hosts the Saturday Market, where farmers and crafters show off their wares every weekend.
Foragable Raleigh is supported by the Foragable Communities initiative and led by local host Piedmont Picnic. This workshop is the second in a new series of Foragable Raleigh events designed to connect cultivate community resilience through local foodways experiences.
The Group Mixes and Forms Sourdough Scones
A Smiling Janee Holds Up 5-Wheel Pastry Cutter
Workshop Participants Hand-Mix Sourdough Ingredients