What to do with all that Sourdough Discard

While sourdough might have been trending in baking circles before, the global shutdown of restaurants and small businesses and a subsequent run on baking yeast in stores created a desire, even a need, to bake bread risen with wild yeast. More and more people are participating in the Great Quarantine Sourdough Experiment of 2020 and we are here for it! 

But what do we do with the daily discards of that healthy sourdough starter? It seems such a waste to toss it in the trash! 

With this in mind, we gathered some ideas and recipes to use your sourdough discard in ways that can help the planet, your community and your own household!

1.  Throw it in the compost! Unused starter is actually great for the compost pile. It adds moisture and as a bonus, live and active yeast, which adds to the beneficial microbial content of your compost. 
2. Give it to your chickens. If you are one of the fortunate folks to have backyard chickens, sourdough discard is a great snack for the pet birds. It is essentially fermented grains which is helpful for getting probiotics into your animals. Plus, you'll soon find that they will come running every time they hear you just for more of that delicious treat. 
3. Give it to your friends! Instead of tossing it, pull off your discard and feed it the same way you feed the "mother". Then you can give it away to all of the people who don't feel ready to start their own. 
4. Use it in other recipes! See below for three delicious recipes that use sourdough discards. (It is up to you how much of these treats you share!)