waking up my 65-year old sourdough starter (and my gumption)

Your first greenhouse session with Farmer Kath starts now. 👩‍🌾✨ Welcome to my newsletter, written to you from this little ½ acre urban homestead in Salt Lake City, Utah.

After a long, hot, dusty summer, it’s time to wake up Phil, my 65-year old sourdough starter. He was gifted to me this winter by my husband’s bestie Robin (who catered our wedding!) and has been in the family for three generations. All winter, I fed Phil and made weekly batches of these sourdough discard crackers.

Then summer started, and so did our house renovation. A leaky, dry-wall-dusty, buggy construction zone is no place for an elderly sourdough starter–so Phil started a long slumber in the upper shelf of my fridge. He’s been sitting dormant next to my hemp and chai seeds ever since.

Kinda like my gumption.

Undoubtedly, you’ve noticed that I’ve ~changed~ a bit. I’m more private online, I stay home more, and the political advocacy has been turned down a great many notches. I’d like to say it’s just part of growing up, but mostly, it was reactionary. Being cyber-stalked online for two years messed with my spirit. I needed time to recollect and heal and figure out what the hell you do after an experience like mine.

I’ve tried to start and to sit down and write to you umpteen times, but the moment was never right. Until today.

Something feels different, and better, and I feel ready and good. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that this reemergence of my gumption came on the same day I thought, “it’s time to wake up Phil and bake some bread.”

We’ll dive into it deeper next time, and explore the spooky stuff like how and why and maybe we’ll figure out answers to the questions I’ve been prodding myself with over the last two years, but first I wanted to offer you a statement of intent. My therapist and I explored this idea recently, and this just fell out of my mouth, and it was exactly right:

My intent is to romanticize life by connecting with nature.

What I’ve learned through over a decade working in the advocacy + marketing space is this: there will never be a shortage of urgency, crisis, and heartache when it comes to the work of caring about this planet. Hell, it burned me right to a crisp. If we’re all going to engage in this lifelong effort, we’ve gotta keep it sustainable. We’ve got to find a way to make committing to a life of environmentalism not synonymous with despair and burnout.

I think the way we balance the hard parts is by romancing the hell out of the good bits. The best way to care for the earth, is to first care for ourselves and our neighbors. We’ve gotta fall absolutely in love with the earth, with our communities, with the trees and bees, all of it. That is how we’ll save the planet.

So that’s what we’re going to do together. 💛

Things I've Romanticized This Week

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📚 Speaking of sharing the good bits together, the first official book event is happening–and it’s on a flower farm. Join us at Together We Bloom farm in Ogden, Utah on October 25th for good conversation, good bites, good company. I’m also cooking up a digital read-along for everyone in October.

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Here’s what I’m digging this week:

• in the garden: the apples are exploding, and I’ve been juicing, saucing, canning, and slicing into oblivion–please send your best apple recipes!

• advocacy action: as we get ready to head to Oregon this week, I’m thinking about the movement to protect the Owyhee Canyonlands–learn more and show your support for a new national monument here.

• recipe: we’re on a big bang-bang sauce kick in this house. I learned a basic recipe, and have just been freestyling variations ever since

• podcast: on this new episode of The Good Dirt podcast, the ladies dig into the idea of sustainable small scale homesteading, and why anyone anywhere can start practicing slow, intentional living.

• music: this playlist on Spotify holds all my current favorite hot girl bops, you’re welcome.

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Today, the spirit is progress over perfection, so sending this newsletter, then you opening it up and receiving it is all I could ask for—but maybe in the future there’s something specific you’d like to see more of? Less of? Are you interested in more links to what I’m cooking/listening to? Want more long form writing? Will I ever have an audience to share Bachelor reality TV content with?

💬 Let me know by leaving a comment, and thank you so much for reading today.

I adore you,
Katie Boué