Wild Bread: Hand-baked sourdough artisan breads in your own kitchen

by Lisa Rayner

Have you ever wanted to back San Francisco sourdough, crusty French artisan loaves, dense Russian ryes, Italian ciabatta, Indian naan, pita bread, great homemade pizza crusts, soft whole wheat sandwich bread, bagels, sweet doughs, Ethiopian injera crêpes and much more?

This book explores what does on inside dough as it is transformed from water, flour, wild yeast and probiotic bacteria into the kind of bread that makes your mouth water. You may never be satisfied with ordinary bread again. Once you learn what factors affect aroma, flavor, shape, crust and crumb, you too will be transformed — into an artisan. Wild Bread encourages your creativity and provides the basic principles you need to bake any bread you desire without needing a recipe. Wild bread also explores baking bread sustainably in solar cookers and wood-fired earth ovens.

Lisa Rayner is the author of Growing Food in the Southwest Mountains and The Sunny Side of Cooking. She has been interested in cooking ever since she became a vegan more than 20 years ago. Today, she continues to have a passion for learning about food, and she continues to share what she has learned through her books and workshops. Permaculture design and a lifelong interest in renewable energy inform her work.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food

170 pages, comb binding

Published March 1, 2009

About the author

Lisa Rayner lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with their wife in Santa Fe, New Mexico at 7,000 feet elevation at the base of the Sangre de Cristos mountains.

Find the latest 2023 editions of Lisa’s books on Amazon and Etsy: Second editions of Wild Bread sourdough and The Sunny Side of Cooking solar cookbook and the 5th edition of Growing Food in the Southwest Mountains, as well as a new weaving technique book, Freeform Overshot for Beginners. Lisa has written other weaving instruction eBooks and weaving patterns available at Lisa Rayner Handwovens on Etsy.

Follow Lisa on Instagram:
@LisaRaynerHandwovens
@Sunny_Solar_Cook
@Lisa_Rayner_Books
@Wild_Bread_Sourdough

※ 1991 Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Interpretation from Northern Arizona University
※ 1993 Black Mesa Permaculture Project Design Certification Course
※ 1994 Coconino County (Arizona) Master Gardener Program
※1995 Lisa became a sourdough baker and solar cook
※ 1996 1st edition of Growing Food in the Southwest Mountains
※ Permaculture design course co-teacher at Northern Arizona University 2005-2010.
※ Other food and gardening books 2007-2023

Lisa learned to weave from their mother as a child. Lisa designs weaving patterns for freeform overshot and wearable art yarn fabrics. They opened their Etsy shop Lisa Rayner Handwovens in 2013. In 2015, their spiral freeform overshot Mermaid Scarf appeared on the cover of the Nov/Dec issue of Handwoven magazine.

Lisa Rayner’s awards:
※ 2008 Martin-Springer Institute Moral Courage Award
※ 2008 Friends of Flagstaff’s Future Livable Community Award.
※ 2009 Gardens for Humanity Visionary Awardee.

Lisa is a disabled, actually autistic, multiply neurodivergent, non-binary activist and artist with interests in climate change, planetary boundaries, eco-justice, eco-ableism, economic justice, neurodivergence, and LGBTQIA2S+, and weaving wearable art. Lisa has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a genetic connective tissue disorder. They also have multiple health issues related to EDS that affect breathing.

Lisa writes blogs for their books and their life as an actually autistic, physically disabled person. Lisa also has a YouTube channel. They are currently writing a memoir of their life as a disabled, neurodivergent trauma survivor.

https://lisarayner.home.blog
YouTube @LisaRaynerBooks

Reviews

[Lori Galaske · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're interested in the science behind sourdough breads, their history, and how to make the real thing, this is the book to read. Lisa Rayner is thorough, and although she's waaay more into sourdough than I think I'll ever be, I still found the information interesting and helpful. The book has a variety of recipes, but I wouldn't call it a cookbook.

[Joanna M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hands down BEST book about baking with real, wild caught, free yeasts/cultures.

[Lisa Rayner]

My 2023 edition includes 36 new pages with color photographs and new text.

My new publisher website is LisaRaynerBooks. My newest book editions are all eBooks. Goodreads refuses to allow me access to my author profile. My old email address is controlled by my abusive ex-husband. I cannot update my author page. The website listed belongs to my ex-husband. He sells old editions of my books.

[Bruce · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author is very enthusiastic about the subject. The author is also well versed in the method of crafting sourdough breads and methods of capturing wild yeast and bacterial allies. The recipes are easy to understand and complete.

My problems are these: the author is not writing for bread makers, but people who have knowledge of cooking or baking, the author shares too personal information and seems to indicate that any other diet should be condemned, the discussions of yeast are incomplete, lumping tamed yeast together, when they are many different breeds.