Netherlands Yeast

Fresh yeast is best left to the industrial manufacturers to make. Use it before too long, or it will lose its power.

It's technically possible to grow pure yeast at home, but it requires sterile technique, equipment and a lot of patience. The only people who do this are homebrewers, since brewing yeast can get very expensive and particular strains sometimes go out of production. But in baking, there really isn't any appreciable difference between fresh yeast strains and you really just want a reliable, predictable rise.

You can also find some stuff about "yeast water" here. As I understand it the goal there is to culture yeast from natural sources without letting it turn into a sourdough. I don't know anything about that but others here do.

 Compressed Fresh Yeast

I do like to use CFY at times at home it takes me back to memories of my commercial bread making days now long past. Here in Western Australia I have found two of my local IGA  supermarket stores sell it in conveniently small amounts rather than a full block and costing less than $1.00 at one store where it has individual prices according to weight and then the other that has a flat $2.00 per chunk. I was quite surprised how much they must sell as there can be quite a lot ready on the shelf one day and then almost empty a couple of days later. I support the individual price per weight store as I can choose the smaller amount. I will often get 3 or 4 bakes  from the single purchase. I think the store code has a best by date of a few weeks. The yeast should flake and crumble easily when its nice and fresh and has a smell that I like. Yeast in this form needs to be kept away from direct contact with the salt when you assemble the ingredients as it will kill the yeast.

As a little side experiment sprinkle a little salt over a small amount of fresh yeast you will see it turn into a puddle as the cell walls rupture killing the yeast from that direct concentrated contact  

Compressed Fresh Yeast weight is 70% water so that needs to be taken into account when using this form of yeast compared to Dry forms.

With regard to growing your own fresh yeast  I recall visiting a yeast making plant and the seed yeast is selected in a laboratory and the selected yeast cells  are grown rapidly under ideal conditions of food,  oxygen and temperature. I also consulted my old technical school notes (over 50 years old now)   and in there a passage reads

Since yeast is a living organism it is subject to the effect of heredity and environment. This means that the nature and value of the yeast is determined by the quality of the parent yeast and by the way the yeast is produced, stored and used in the bakehouse. good yeast should have a clean fresh yeasty odour and taste. It should be free of all traces of decaying taint and should be in a slightly moist condition, although slight crumbliness due to drying out  doesn't seem to do any material harm. Yeast turns brown as dries out very quickly when exposed to air. Whilst its gassing qualities are not greatly affected by the loss of moisture up to 20% of its own weight, its gluten maturing action is decidedly damaged. 

Just a note of caution here I do remember tasting CFY it was just a flake or a shard that I tried it went into my mouth  and from my tongue it transferred to the roof of my mouth where it stuck with the moisture of my own saliva. Even 50+ years on I recall it being neither pleasant  nor easy to dislodge from the roof of the mouth. I do however enjoy using it for bread making from time to time and encourage you to give it a go if you get the opportunity

kind regards Derek

Hi Jennifer I checked your avatar and as yet does not show where abouts in this wide world you are, anyway i'm sure you should be able to get Compressed Fresh Yeast in most Western countries.

I would suspect that the yeast is probably not at its best  if you try to salvage any go for the centre of the block. The colour should be a khaki colour.

In the early days there was a lot of Dutch brands of yeast on the market nowadays in this part of the world especially the dried varieties seem to be manufactured in China

below is what came up when I asked for compressed yeast Australia

Kind regards Derek

Compressed Yeast

Fermex compressed yeast contains between 28 and 33% solids and has a moist consistency and a light creamy colour.  Crumbly, it is added during mixing and disperses easily in the dough.

Ideally, it should be stored between 0° and 3 °C; however, compressed yeast stored at 6°C is acceptable. When stored at the recommended conditions, Fermex compressed yeast retains all of its characteristics during the 28 days of its shelflife from manufacture date.

Fermex compressed yeast comes in compact blocks of 1 kg wrapped in wax paper and packed in 12 X 1kg boxes.  It is manufactured in Victoria, under strictly controlled conditions to ensure optimum stability, consistency and activity in baking processes. Fermex compressed is both Kosher and Halal certified.

YEAS050

YEAST COMPRESSED FRESH 12KG

Australia

Fresh bakery yeast that has been compressed into light cream coloured blocks. The product is able to be cut without crumbling, with minimum of chips and cracks. The yeast is cultivated from a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisae.

Production of bread and other fermented baker’s products

Bakers Yeast, Water

Net Weight: 12
Units: 12KG

Product specifications subject to change without notice.

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I just googled compressed yeast new York and quite a bit came up good luck