SOURDOUGH AND THE HAND-MADE LOAF
The sourdough starter was sourced in Murchison Station country, where I had repaired for the winter of 2013 to act as
caretaker at the Murchison Settlement Museum (about 400kms north east of Geraldton).
The job involved keeping the place open and alive and interacting with tourists travelling the inland route north to the
Gascoyne and Pilbara regions and beyond. Chief among the pleasures of the place are the high-quality visitors – usually older
people who have a lot of interest and knowledge of station life – and the Murchison locals, those hardworking souls living and
working on the 26 stations represented by the Shire. And then there is the land: the red dirt country that holds a magnetic pull
all of its own.
I started experimenting with sourdough baking when Emma Foulkes-Taylor, enthusiastic baker, experienced caterer, mistress
of Yuin Station and one of the women in the community that runs the Murchison Museum, gave me some of her sourdough
leaven, a small bag of organic rye flour to act as a feeder, and a recipe for two loaves.
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