You see it everywhere at the moment. Another loaf being scored, another starter being fed, another person announcing they’ve started baking sourdough. And you might be thinking to yourself, what is this obsession with sourdough again?
We first saw it peak back in 2020 during lockdowns across the world. We were home more than ever, life slowed down, and suddenly everyone was baking bread. Then routines returned, schedules filled up, and many starters quietly disappeared. I know mine did once life picked back up and I started my business.
Fast forward to now, and you might have noticed a new wave of content around “analog life”. Let’s be honest, most people don’t actually want to give up smartphones and modern convenience. What they’re really craving is the feeling behind it. Slower mornings. Less rushing. More time for the things that feel grounding. More slow Sundays in the kitchen.
And that’s where sourdough comes back in.
Baking sourdough forces you to slow down. You can’t rush the process or take shortcuts. It takes time to build a starter and time to make a loaf. There’s waiting, feeding, folding and resting. It becomes a small ritual in the middle of busy weeks, something that asks you to pause and be present.
I think a lot of us are craving that simplicity because life feels fast. Weeks blur together, months disappear, and it can feel like you’re constantly moving from one thing to the next without ever really stopping.
Of course, the slow life we see online isn’t always reality. Loaves don’t always turn out perfectly. Starters get forgotten in the back of the fridge. Dough overprooves. Life gets in the way. And that’s normal.
You’re not a bakery. You’re not baking for customers. You’re baking at home. For yourself. For the process. For the satisfaction of making something with your hands. Maybe to save money, maybe to know exactly what’s in your food, or maybe just because you wanted to try something new.
That’s why sourdough keeps coming back. Not because it’s trendy, but because it gives people something slow in a fast world. For me, it’s about leaning more into homemade, saving money (especially when my favourite loaf now costs $15), and knowing I can bake bread whenever I want it.
And sometimes, that’s reason enough to keep feeding the starter.
If you’re curious about getting started, I’ve shared both my sourdough starter method and my everyday sourdough loaf on my site.