This may seem silly, but this just popped into my head and I can't get it
out. The general consensus and one that seems to have been proven so well
seems to be that the sourdough organisms are already present on the grain
and do not float about in the air in any quantity to be consequential in
creating a new starter. Okay. So how do they get onto the newly grown grain
then? Is it in the soil that the stalk is in contact with, perpetually
bombarded with pesticides and chemical fertilizers? Contributed from last
years crop onto this years seed grain husk from whence the new stalk has
sprouted? Does it come from Samartha's cowshit, from grain ingested and
having somehow survived traveling through bovine intestines and spread as
fertilizer? Bees, fleas, and Charles Perry's bread faeries? Just saying it
already exists on the grain seems to leave something as a mystery.

On Feb 28, 5:54*pm, "hutchndi" > wrote:
> This may seem silly, but this just popped into my head and I can't get it
> out. The general consensus and one that seems to have been proven so well
> seems to be that the sourdough organisms are already present on the grain
> and do not float about in the air in any quantity to be consequential in
> creating a new starter. Okay. So how do they get onto the newly grown grain
> then? Is it in the soil that the stalk is in contact with, perpetually
> bombarded with pesticides and chemical fertilizers? Contributed from last
> years crop onto this years seed grain husk from whence the new stalk has
> sprouted? Does it come from Samartha's cowshit, from grain ingested and
> having somehow survived traveling through bovine intestines and spread as
> fertilizer? Bees, fleas, and Charles Perry's bread faeries? Just saying it
> already exists on the grain seems to leave something as a mystery.

Hutch,

How does the bacteria that resides in your gut, and helps you digest
food, get there?

This isn't chicken and egg stuff. The grain needs the bacteria to help
convert starches to energy when it germinates. It's simply biological
symbiosis. Been that way for the last several hundred thousand years.
Now... my guess is that organic grains are more likely to have viable
cultures on them... and I strongly suspect that using animals to
cultivate fields is a part of this too.

I guess you've got to stand in a ripening grain field to realize how
incredibly busy things are. There are critters, birds, insects, dew,
wind... it's not a sterile environment. It's what you might call:
"fecund".

"Will" > wrote in message
...
On Feb 28, 5:54 pm, "hutchndi" > wrote:
> This may seem silly, but this just popped into my head and I can't get it
> out. The general consensus and one that seems to have been proven so well
> seems to be that the sourdough organisms are already present on the grain
> and do not float about in the air in any quantity to be consequential in
> creating a new starter. Okay. So how do they get onto the newly grown
> grain
> then? Is it in the soil that the stalk is in contact with, perpetually
> bombarded with pesticides and chemical fertilizers? Contributed from last
> years crop onto this years seed grain husk from whence the new stalk has
> sprouted? Does it come from Samartha's cowshit, from grain ingested and
> having somehow survived traveling through bovine intestines and spread as
> fertilizer? Bees, fleas, and Charles Perry's bread faeries? Just saying it
> already exists on the grain seems to leave something as a mystery.

Hutch,

How does the bacteria that resides in your gut, and helps you digest
food, get there?

This isn't chicken and egg stuff. The grain needs the bacteria to help
convert starches to energy when it germinates. It's simply biological
symbiosis. Been that way for the last several hundred thousand years.
Now... my guess is that organic grains are more likely to have viable
cultures on them... and I strongly suspect that using animals to
cultivate fields is a part of this too.

I guess you've got to stand in a ripening grain field to realize how
incredibly busy things are. There are critters, birds, insects, dew,
wind... it's not a sterile environment. It's what you might call:
"fecund".

Thanks Will. Ya learnt me a new word today!

"Will" > wrote in message
...
On Feb 28, 5:54 pm, "hutchndi" > wrote:
> This may seem silly, but this just popped into my head and I can't get it
> out. The general consensus and one that seems to have been proven so well
> seems to be that the sourdough organisms are already present on the grain
> and do not float about in the air in any quantity to be consequential in
> creating a new starter. Okay. So how do they get onto the newly grown
> grain
> then? Is it in the soil that the stalk is in contact with, perpetually
> bombarded with pesticides and chemical fertilizers? Contributed from last
> years crop onto this years seed grain husk from whence the new stalk has
> sprouted? Does it come from Samartha's cowshit, from grain ingested and
> having somehow survived traveling through bovine intestines and spread as
> fertilizer? Bees, fleas, and Charles Perry's bread faeries? Just saying it
> already exists on the grain seems to leave something as a mystery.

Hutch,

How does the bacteria that resides in your gut, and helps you digest
food, get there?

This isn't chicken and egg stuff. The grain needs the bacteria to help
convert starches to energy when it germinates. It's simply biological
symbiosis. Been that way for the last several hundred thousand years.
Now... my guess is that organic grains are more likely to have viable
cultures on them... and I strongly suspect that using animals to
cultivate fields is a part of this too.

I guess you've got to stand in a ripening grain field to realize how
incredibly busy things are. There are critters, birds, insects, dew,
wind... it's not a sterile environment. It's what you might call:
"fecund".

Thanks Will. Ya learnt me a new word today!