Baking in the Plague

I like "hard core" sourdough - I often make big loaves of 100% whole wheat entirely leavened by sourdough. 

However, there has been a big promotion of sourdough in the mainstream media because of a perceived shortage of baker's yeast.  This is silly. Sourdough should be baked for its virtues.  And, yeast breads should be baked for their virtues.

I buy yeast at "food service suppliers".  There, a 2 or even a 4 pound package of yeast costs less than an 8 ounce jar of yeast at my local grocery store. (I have a couple of suppliers that I use and they are both local. Find your local supplier(s).)  I put most of the package in a big glass jar in the freezer (dated) and keep an  8 oz jar of yeast in the frig, that I refill as needed.  After 6 or 8 months, the activity of the yeast decline,  but I have used enough yeast for a hundred or more  bakes for less than the price of an 8 oz jar, and at tiny, tiny fraction of the price of buying the yeast in envelopes. I discard old yeast.  The yeast currently in the freezer is from a 4# package bought on 10/18/2019, but it is still performing well. My food service  suppliers have had yeast on the shelf continuously for the last few months and they cheerfully sell to anyone. If you know where to look, yeast is available, it may just be in a different package. (Food service suppliers will also have big bags of flour for reasonable prices. It can be a very good value, but again flour loses quality after a few months.  Do not buy more white flour than you can use in 6 months or more whole wheat flour than you can keep cold and  use in 2 months . Date the packages! Due to the short shelf life of whole wheat flour, I buy wheat berries and mill my own whole wheat flour. Well packaged wheat berries will keep for years.) 

Many, many "sourdough bread" recipes call for yeast.  Use of yeast in sourdough bread seems to irritate sourdough purists to the point of apoplexy.  It should not. Use of yeast in sourdough breads (or use of sourdough in yeast breads) allows the production of breads that cannot be produced by either technology alone.  These breads can be wonderful.

In a time of plague, everyone should have the comfort of good, fresh bread at a reasonable price.