My brother is basically the most unreliable sourdough assistant in Las Vegas history, and I'm saying that as someone who literally killed Yeaston once and had to bring him back from the dead. But I love him anyway.
It all started about six months ago when he walked into the kitchen while I was doing my morning stretch-and-folds on a bulk fermentation and was like, "Dude, that looks so cool. Can I help?" I was pumped. Finally, someone in my family besides my mom actually wanted to learn about the science behind why we fold the dough every thirty minutes instead of just kneading it once like normal people do. My dad's great with the business side of Rise & Grind, but my brother actually seemed interested in the actual baking part.
He lasted exactly two weeks before deciding he'd rather sleep in than wake up at five in the morning to help me prep dough. Fair, I guess, but also you can't just abandon Yeaston like that. My starter has feelings.
Then about three months later, he saw me pull a loaf out of the Dutch oven with perfect oven spring and a gorgeous deep mahogany crust. The scoring was immaculate. The crumb structure was open and beautiful. Suddenly he's back like, "Okay, I'm in again. Teach me everything." So I did. He learned about autolyse, about how the Las Vegas heat actually speeds up fermentation in ways that messed with me for months, about shaping technique and why you can't just squish the air out of your dough like it owes you money.
He lasted three weeks that time.
This has happened FOUR times now. I'm not even exaggerating. He quits, I move on, he comes back with the biggest apology energy, and I'm like, "Sure, buddy. Let's go." My mom finds it hilarious. My dad says it's good for him to learn commitment through failure, which is very dad of him.
The thing is, I actually don't mind anymore? Being eleven and running a real bakery means I do most of the work anyway. My customers depend on me. Yeaston depends on me. When my brother helps, it's a bonus. When he bails, I just shrug and get back to my schedule.
He's currently on round five of his sourdough journey, by the way. We'll see how long it lasts this time.
Ready to taste the real thing?
Order This Week's Bread →