09/08/2026
We came across this interesting website that will mail you sourdough starter that crossed the country via the Oregon Trail in 1847! If you've been looking for some starter, or just want to try a different one out, you can mail these volunteers a SASE and they will send you some for free. The little history blurb they have captures how integral sourdough was for feeding Americans as they expanded west. It's a shame keeping a stater and making sourdough wasn't an option in the old Oregon Trail game, more people might have made it!
https://carlsfriends.net/source.html
"The history has been asked for. All I know is that it started west in 1847 from Missouri. I would guess
with the family of Dr. John Savage as one of his daughters (my great grandmother) was the cook. It came
on west and settled near Salem Or. Doc. Savageās daughter met and married my great grand father on the
trail and they had 10 children. It was passed on to me though my parents when they passed away. I am 76
years old so that was some time ago. I first learned to use the starter in a basque sheep camp when I was
10 years old as we were setting up a homestead on the Steens Mountains in southeastern Oregon. A
campfire has no oven, so the bread was baked in a Dutch Oven in a hole in the ground in which we had
built a fire, placed the oven, scraped in the coals from around the rim, and covered with dirt for several
hours. I used it later making bread in a chuck wagon on several cattle drives - again in southeastern
Oregon.
Considering that the people at that time had no commercial starter for their bread, I do not know when it
was first caught from the wild or where, but it has been exposed to many wild yeasts since and personally
I like it. I hope you enjoy it."
Please, only 1 request per address due to the enormous volume of requests. You can revive the starter and share it with house members.