Just realized I've baked exactly 1,000 loaves of my sourdough starter, 'Frank', since I caught him from the air in my Seattle apartment.

It hit me when my flour delivery guy asked if I was running a secret bakery, and I had to explain that no, it's just me and Frank, who is technically a jar of microbes, eating all this bread lol.

3 comments

3 Comments

victorb512mo ago

Remember reading about a guy who named his car and held funerals for its parts when they failed. Your story about Frank the starter feels like that same kind of good, weird commitment. I get it though, once you name something it stops being a thing and starts being a roommate. My neighbor has a tomato plant he calls Steve and he talks about its mood swings.

olivia3802mo ago

Ever wonder where that line is between a tool and a friend? @victorb51, your neighbor talking to Steve the tomato plant is a perfect example. It's like my old coffee maker, Bertha. I'd give it a pat and say "good morning" before hitting the button. When it finally died, I felt bad just tossing it in the bin. Naming something gives it a story, and then you're just honoring the work it did for you.

brookep621mo ago

I see what you're getting at with the whole "honoring the work it did" thing, but I gotta push back a little. I think there's a difference between appreciating something and acting like it has feelings. Naming your coffee maker is one thing, but patting it and saying good morning? That's treating it like a pet, not a tool. Tools are made to serve us, not the other way around. Once you start feeling guilty about tossing something that broke, you're kind of missing the point. It's a machine, it did its job, and now it's done. No story needed.