Hattie Witte’s sourdough starter will live forever BIG CREEK — Those who cherish finer will be gratified to learn that Hattie Witte’s sourdough starter lives on here and continues to breed marvellous bread in an oven that is fed with jackpine sticks. Veera Bonner has the starter. Her mother, Hattie, made it, but Hattie has been dead for 47 years and most of her children, grand- children and great grandchildren haven’t had any for years. They knew two people who had some original starter, a shirt-tail cousin of the family in Washington state and a Cariboo resident, Marianne Drift, who lives on Pablo Creek just outside Williams Lake. Mrs. Drift used Hattie’s starter to make bread in the Yukon when she and her husband, Johnnie, ran a guiding outfit. She gave some to Myrna Bon- ner who in turn gave some to her mother-in-law, Veera, and Veera now keeps 2 jar in the refrigerator, a household boon which Hattie, daughter of the oldest white settlers west of the Fraser River, spent most of her life without. Thus has the one, true and orig- inal starter come home to Big Creek after lo these many years. Our worid is, alas, replete with putsmokers, toad-lickers, glue sniffers and environmentalists who may assume that it is Hattic Witte's recipe for sourdough starter that has survived. This shows the triumph of ig- norance in our society. It is not her recipe that survives but the very bugs whom she encouraged to join her in making bread de- cades ago. The bacteria, the microbes, the Paul St. Pierre PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES Flour, water and sugar are put in tepid water and left to the mer- cies of whatever organisms may come along to make them [er- ment. Sometimes a batch of starter doesn’t get the right start in life. lt goes bad instead of gracefully fermenting and stinks enough to knock a dog off a gutwagon. It must be thrown away. When it does work, however, sourdough starter has an odor Slightly off but not unpleasant. Like beer, for instance. Once it is establisited, you need only add a few of the ingredients now and then to the starter, the 44 Most people believe that all bread comes from Mr. McGavin who grows it on his great sliced loaf plantations ...99 quipscallians, whatever the scien- tific word for them is, will live on in a happy household forever, if given a bit of care and love. There are doubtless families with sourdough starter dating back to King Alfred the Great or perhaps Ramses the Something who built the Step Pyramid in Egymt. However, we are a new country here, and in Big Creek the oldest starter around is Hattie’s, which is only about half a century old. Most people make bread with yeast. No. That isn’t true. Most peo- ple believe that all bread comes from Mr. McGavin who grows it on his great sliced loaf plantations where he rides across the fertile fields, on a superb Tennessee Walking Horse, admiring the way the sun glints on the plastic wrap- pers. Only a few people do not believe in che McGavin Br:sad Plantation. They make their own bread, thumping it, kneading it and making it squeak, and using yeast to make the dough rise. The ycast plays the same part as . it does in making beer, wine and mash for whisky. All such pro- cesses depend upon fermentation to create gases or alcohol. However, there has long been another, an older, perhaps nobler type of bread-making. Sour- dough. - The starter for sourdough is not yeast, but some other bug which is summoned up by faith and luck. bugs are permanent. To make sourdough bread, you use a bit of your sourdough starter instead of yeast. Other processes are as for yeast bread, although some say sourdough rises slower in the pan and, once risen, shouldn’t be punched down a se- cond time. Those who, like Veera, want to make doubly sure they preserve the heart, the essence, the very soul of a family's sourdough Starter, put a portion in some tight container and freeze it rock hard. She says this is why sourdough is associated with the Yukon gold rush people. You can freeze it solid and not kill it. She might have added that it’s also the reason it is associated with the Chilcotin where it some- times snows in July. As for its vitality, she is too - modest. As the research of Eisenstein, Lombardo and Wycinski of Edin- burgh University has shown, sourdough starter will survive be- ing pounded by mallets, burned in blast furnaces or left open during city council debates. Next to love, it is one of the most indestructible of all phe- nomena. When the world’s last picture is painted, when the tubes are twisted and dried, somebody will still have some sourdough starter, maybe Hattie Witte’s, and ic will still make good bread. Friday, May 15, 1992 - North Shore News - 9 Public Meeting Notice to discuss plans for the management of the Vancouver Port Corporation's property referred to as Maplewood South All those interested in learning more about the plans are welcome to attend a public information session Thursday May 21 8:00 p.m. at Canadian International College 2420 Dollarton Highway, North Vancouver On hand to answer questions will be representatives from: Environmental Services. Public Works Canada Canadian Wildlife Service. 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