Remember Shaun? My wittily named sour dough starter and I would conquer the world, one freshly made loaf at the time. I was so sure of it.

Only it turns out Shaun kinda sucks.

This is what Shaun and I came up with that fateful Sunday morning. Looks good, right?

Well guess again:

Turns out Shaun didn’t quite pack the punch to get the dough to rise. And, honestly, that’s kind of exactly Shaun’s raison d’être.

What’s the deal, Shaun?

Why are you nothing but a waste of a good pun?

Thankfully, google was – as always – the answer to everything: Shaun is made out of spelt. And spelt has high protein. And protein is kind of bad in a sour dough starter. It’s not exactly bad, but it warrants its own special way of handling.

So Shaun is special.

And because I’m a humanist I’ll keep feeding Shaun.

Reach for the moon, Shaun. Even if you miss, you’ll land amongst the stars.

(Even though I’m creating a better strarter out of wheat which seems to be coming along nicely but not good enough yet to waste another pun on)