The sourdough issue

I had been interested in trying out sourdough breadmaking for some time, but now that it has come such a thing as a result of the lockdowns,  I don't want to give people the impression I'm a meme follower by joining in!

Anyway, I was interested in this NYT summary of what is going on in sourdough starter, apart from wild yeast:

But sourdough would not be sour without a second and equally important element: bacteria, specifically the kind that feed on the sugars to produce lactic acid and other organic acids that give the bread its tang. These, too, are found on the flour or other dry ingredients.

The yeast and bacteria have evolved a form of metabolic cooperation. “They’ve figured out how to work together,” Dr. Wolfe said.

There are some bad bacteria present as well, the kind that can cause food to spoil, but the acidic environment of the growing culture greatly reduces their number. And baking has a final “kill step,” Mr. Philip said — heat in the oven that will destroy good and bad microbes alike.

I wonder what commercial sourdough bakers use, then?   I assume there must be commerical suppliers of the right kind of bacteria to add?  

The article notes someone who has kept a sourdough starter going for 60 years!:

Ione Christensen has been baking breads and making pancakes for most of her 86 years, using sourdough starter, a bubbling brew of wild yeast she has kept alive since her mother gave her a batch.

That was six decades ago, which makes Mrs. Christensen, a Canadian former senator from Whitehorse, Yukon, one of the most experienced wild yeast wranglers around.

The deliberate killing of an old, family heirloom sourdough starter was a funny event in an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

And finally - I had some truly delicious sourdough from an Italian bakery in Brisbane last weekend.   As well as an excellent Black Forest cake.   It's called Gerbino's, and I think it's probably our favourite in the city now.