Noticed sourdough starter smells changing at the Portland farmers market

I was at the Portland farmers market last Saturday and walked by three different baker booths. Every single starter smelled totally different, from fruity to almost cheesy. It got me thinking, does the local yeast in each city really change the flavor that much? Has anyone else picked up on big smell differences between starters from different places?

2 comments

2 Comments

elizabethtaylor22d ago

Oh wow, that's such a fun thing to notice! And you're totally right that starters smell different (I've sniffed my way through plenty myself). The thing is, the "local yeast" idea is a little oversold by bakeries. The truth is, most of the microbes in your starter come from the flour itself, not the air. So a bakery using the same organic flour from the same mill in Portland and San Francisco might end up with very similar smells over time. But the water and the baker's handling and feeding schedule (like how often they discard and refresh it) make a way bigger difference than the neighborhood. So that tropical San Francisco starter was probably from a wet, high-hydration feeding habit, not just the fog, you know?

danielmason22d ago

Oh, that's a really good observation. I've definitely noticed that myself. There's a spot in San Francisco that has this almost tropical, pineapple-y starter, and then a friend brought me some from a tiny town in New Mexico that smelled straight up like buttermilk and grass. It makes sense when you think about where those bakeries are located. The wild yeast and bacteria floating around in the air are totally different from one neighborhood to the next, let alone from city to city. A bakery down by the water is going to have a different microbial environment than one up in the hills, and that changes how the flour ferments over time.