The South African Sourdough Culture ($14.00)
This culture was collected by Gray Handcock in Kenilworth, a suburb of Capetown, South Africa.  In his e-mail correspondence with Sourdoughs International, Handcock describes the culture and its origin this way: "I have made cultures before and indeed I made my own bread for close to 5 years. For some reason, I threw the culture out and started eating "cardboard".  However, when I started wanting flavour in my bread again, I collected this new culture. It is very flexible with regard to rising times and can create a very strongly flavoured loaf. The taste has the potential to become very powerful when fermentation is left for 8 to 10 hours.  I always use pure whole wheat, no unbleached white flour. This culture is easy going and bas been trained on whole wheat, and it functions with either somewhat wet or somewhat dry doughs. It rises at temperatures down to 18 degrees Centigrade (64oF.)."

This is the only sourdough culture we are aware of that leavens whole-wheat better than it does white flour and is therefore ideal for those who grind their own flour. The flavor is truly unique, and when combined with 100% whole-wheat, the texture, sourness and flavor are unsurpassed. We have also grown it using all white flour.  The nutty flavor persists and white sourdough breads made with this culture are quite different from those prepared with our other sourdough cultures. 

Sourdoughs International prepares this culture in the same manner as our other cultures, except that it is grown in 100% whole-wheat flour. Its ability to leaven whole-wheat doughs offers the home baker almost unlimited opportunities to experiment with different combinations of whole wheat, spelt, kamut and white flours.  Instructions are included with this culture.