Remember during Covid when everyone decided to learn how to bake bread and making sourdough became a pastime of sorts? Do you remember the Oregon Trail stories from school? How would you like some sourdough starter that dates back almost 175 years? All it costs is a SASE (self-addressed, stamped envelope.)

In the mid 1800’s the Oregon Trail was the main route west for settlers, farmers, lumbermen and prospectors. The Trail started in the state of Missouri in about the center of the continental US and meandered WNW for about 2000 miles to the Oregon Territory. Other trails branched off of the main trail, SW to Santa Fe and west to California and elsewhere.

The Starter came West in 1847 with one of Carl Griffiths ancestors who traveled the Oregon Trail to Oregon by wagon train.

For more detailed instructions on how to request a sourdough starter or to get some tried-and-true recipes, click here.

Be sure to check out Local 5 Live from 9 – 10am on March 30, 2026. I’ll be joining Lisa Malak and Millaine Wells to talk about the rising price of groceries and which store in Northeastern Wisconsin is the cheapest!