here is the story of our 235 year old sourdough starter I inherited this starter from my mother, who purchased it from a bakery in San Francisco where there is a history rich in sourdough bread. During the California Gold Rush in the mid-19th century, French immigrants, including master bakers, arrived in San Francisco. They brought with them their traditional sourdough bread-making techniques, utilizing "mother dough" – a starter culture of flour and water fermented with naturally occurring yea