The Sourdough School

Centre of Research & Education in Nutrition & Digestibility of Bread & the Gut Microbiome

Over 25 years ago Vanessa Kimbell recognised that that bread that we eat every day has a powerful, influence on our health. She pioneered an evidence-based approach, reframing the way we bake and eat bread as lifestyle medicine. The Sourdough School was founded to provide groundbreaking education, research and development programmes to support the baking and healthcare sectors.
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Soil Association
Our sourdough starter and our gardens are certified organic by the Soil Association.
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white sourdough starter
Sourdough Starter Kit

White Sourdough Starter Kit & Course

£34.99

We’ve put together an amazing kit & course containing just about everything you need to get started with a very special white sourdough starter. Pre-order now: next despatch 21st June 2022

When you buy our sourdough starter kit it comes with:

  • 50g of white starter – FREE
  • A 600ml ceramic storage jar with lid
  • Sourdough School White Starter label
  • 1kg strong white flour
  • 5 Sourdough printed cards – Basic Recipe, Loaf record, Loaf schedule, White Starter, Tasting/Flavour wheel
  • Sourdough Starter Course on how to refresh and look after your starter (RRP £24.99)
  • Optional – you can add to this a signed copy of ‘The Sourdough School’ book should you wish to.

All postage is on the fastest tariff possible. We can ship to both Europe and the USA, but you will need to make sure you are on hand to refresh your starter the moment it arrives.

Categories: Featured Products, Products, Sourdough Ingredients
  • Description

Buy our White Sourdough Starter Kit & Course – we have 100 starters available to pre-order, however we expect to release more later in the year. Pre-order now: next despatch 21st June 2022

White Starter – sweet yogurt-like flavours – our original sourdough starter

My French white starter is one that I have been using since I was 11 year old and originates in the bakery I grew up baking with in France. It takes a bit longer to reach its peak and is generally slower and sweeter, and much more forgiving of being neglected for a week, so is the one I recommend for beginners.

I have verbal confirmation that the starter originated over 115 years ago and has been maintained ever since…it’s a lovely story. Although the microbes double every 20 – 30 minutes when they are refreshed…so it is either over a century old or 30 minutes old depending on how you want look at it.

The kit contains:

  • 50g of white starter – FREE
  • A 600ml ceramic storage jar with lid
  • Sourdough School White Starter label
  • 1kg strong white flour
  • 5 Sourdough printed cards – Basic Recipe, Loaf record, Loaf schedule, White Starter, Tasting/Flavour wheel
  • Sourdough Starter Course on how to refresh and look after your starter (RRP £24.99)
  • Optional – you can add to this a signed copy of ‘The Sourdough School’ book should you wish to.

We are always asked if it is possible to buy our sourdough starter, but because it is basically organic flour, water and wild yeast naturally occurring in the flour we decided it was important to give it away for free.

Microbial Composition

In January 2017 our beautiful Sourdough School’s French white sourdough starter, derived from the original French starter from the bakery I grew up baking in, was analysed by the Puratos Sourdough Library in Belgium. This analysis revealed that it contained one dominant yeast and several kinds of LAB, which is typical of the make –up

  • Yeast = Saccharomyces Cerevisiae
  • Lactobacillus kimchii
  • Lactobacillus sanfrenciscensis
  • Lactobacillus acidifarinae

REFRESH STRAIGHT AWAY

The starter will need refreshing the moment you get it, as it will have been travelling from The Sourdough School to you. Please use the flour that comes as part of your kit.

Please go to How to Refresh Your Starter for detailed instructions and video and/or print off our PDF Refreshing A Sourdough Starter.

You can follow our Basic Sourdough Recipe online

You can learn how to make sourdough with Vanessa Kimbell at The Sourdough School, or you can learn to make sourdough online at The Sourdough Club.

* Please note that our sourdough starters are ONLY posted out when we are able to make them. We build the starter here at the School to ensure each starter is in peak condition and at its most active. The rest of your kit will be sent at the same time as the starter.

* IT IS ESSENTIAL that when you receive your starter it is refreshed immediately in accordance with the instructions

* For best results, continue to refresh your starter using the recommended flour. Using a different flour can alter the microbial composition of the starter and may affect its level of activity.

Although we are based in the UK it can be shipped to Europe and the USA on the fastest delivery available.

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THE GENDER GAP IN HEART DIAGNOSIS
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According to a report by the British Heart Foundation, more than 8,200 women died needlessly over a ten year period due to inequalities in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. Concerningly, women fare worse at every stage in their health journey for heart disease globally. 
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DID YOU KNOW?
-	Women get half as much heart attack treatment as men 
-	Women are 50% more likely to receive a wrong initial diagnosis than their male counterpart, increasing the risk of death by as much as 70%
-	Women are less likey than men to recieve standard treatments such as bypass surgery
We can and must do better, starting by tackling the false- and deadly- assumption that women are not at risk of heart attacks. In reality, women are twice as likely to die from coronary heart disease than breast cancer.
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🌾Whole Grain Consumption And Heart Disease Protection
There is a robust body of evidence that suggests whole grains can protect against coronary heart disease, alongside obesity and colorectal cancer.
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❤️ According to a senior dietician at the British Heart Foundation: "Eating more whole grains is a simple change we can make to improve our diet and help lower our risk of heart and circulatory disease." Opting for wholemeal or granary in favour of refined white bread is a simple, effective way to increase your whole grain and fibre intake. #hearthealth #healthyheart #wholegrain #feedthecells #lifestylemedice #bake2give1 #wholegrainbread #internationalwomensday
A NEW APPROACH

👉🏻 For the past 3 years we’ve been working on something incredible … prescription sourdough bread making courses for our @sourdoughclub members 

📈We have had amazing advances in healthcare, but there is no pill to cure poor diet. The best medicine is prevention via a healthy lifestyle, and many studies have shown that people who eat healthily and exercise regularly sleep better, have less anxiety and depression, have more energy, and lower their risk of chronic illness overall.

🙌 Vanessa’s work on Bread & the Impact on the Gut Microbiome has been turned into something extraordinary. Prescription bread-making courses as a lifestyle intervention, and the Bread Protocol we teach here is designed to address the way you live, exploring behaviour related to nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep, social support and environmental exposures. These courses are 12 weeks long, and designed to maintain health and prevent disease not just in individuals bit in patients and populations, so we have 2 ways to enrol on a course: 

1️⃣ SOCIAL PRESCRIPTION 
If your doctor or healthcare practitioner is one of  our Sourdough School graduates and they feel that this bread-making prescription course is something that will improve your health, then they may can prescribe the course for you as a social prescription free.

2️⃣ SELF PRESCRIPTION 
You can self-prescribe these courses by enrolling yourself on a course to improve your health and wellbeing.

📰 If you are interested in learning more about the prescription courses then please sign up to the newsletters as we will be announcing their launch over the coming weeks and months. 

@vanessakimbell
@drmiguelmateas 
@dralexdavidson 
@dksherratt 

#lifestylemedicine #preventativemedicine #systemschange #socialprescribingday #socialprescribing
IN 2016 WE TESTED BLOOD SUGAR RESPONSE TO OUR PUMP IN 2016 WE TESTED BLOOD SUGAR RESPONSE TO OUR PUMPKIN SOURDOUGH IN THE  CLASSES

Our students measured their responses throughout the #breadandguts #sourdoughschool & @vanessakimbell wrote the recipe up in her bestselling Sourdough School book.

✨ So good to read that a recent 2021 study on Glycaemic and Appetite Suppression Effect of a Vegetable-Enriched Bread ( mentioned by @theguthealthdoctor today see last slide ) where researchers looked at the impacts of veg-enriched bread compared to  commercial white bread and commercial brown bread on the insulin levels of people participating. 

The results showed that when the participants ate the veg bread they reported feeling more satiation versus when they ate the white or brown bread. 

👆🏼They also experienced a lower insulin response with the vegetable bread. 
essentially translating this science into practice before it was trendy 😂👆🏼👍

This image is taken from the @sourdoughschool book by @vanessakimbell, produced by @kylebooksuk, with photography by @nassimarothacker, styled by @season_adam & with foreword by @richardhartbaker
DID YOU KNOW WE HAVE AN ONLINE SHOP & CAN PURCHASE DID YOU KNOW WE HAVE AN ONLINE SHOP & CAN PURCHASE MY WHITE SOURDOUGH STARTER?
(with worldwide delivery)
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I have several sourdough starters but The French white starter is one that I have been using since I was 11 years old and originates in the bakery I grew up baking within France. It takes a bit longer to reach it’s peak and is generally slower and sweeter, and much more forgiving of being neglected for a week, so the one I recommend for beginners. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We have verbal confirmation that the starter originated over 115 years ago and If you swipe right in the video you can listen to me chatting to one of the older residents of the village confirming that bakery did not shut during the war either .. & it has been maintained ever since... it’s a lovely story. Although the microbes double every 20 – 30 minutes when they are refreshed ... so it is either over a century old or 30 minutes old depending on how you want to look at it. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
You can purchase a pot of my starter, along with a grey moon kilner jar & a mini video course on looking after your starter. 
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TAP THE PICTURE TO SHOP.
 
Swipe right to see the amazing video of the French bakery where the starter originated from @vanessakimbell has been baking with this starter for over 20 years … and first baked almost 40 years ago with it …#romantic 
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#breadbosses #breadporn #flourwatersalt #breadtalk #bread #breadstagram #sourdough #sourdoughschool #bread #sourdoughlove #sourdoughlover #naturalleavened #leavening #levain #realbread #breadmaking #bakebread #makebread #makerealbread #learntobakebread #breadmakingclass #sourdoughstories #bakingforlove #bakingtherapy #sourdoughbaking #bannetons #bakery
UNDERSTANDING SOURDOUGH … starts, not in the bak UNDERSTANDING SOURDOUGH …
starts, not in the bakery, but in the soil.
#sourdough
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