Spores

While "Spores" is a very entertaining song by John Forster (Listen here on Spotify), they are no friend to my rye bread.  I've been having trouble, lately, getting through a week without mold finding its way onto my bread.  This particular mold shows up in tiny spots all around the loaf.

Those little spots can be easy to miss for my eye, but my taste buds certainly notice them!

It's a shame to have to throw out any of this tasty bread, so I am going to try experimenting with my storage method.  Up until now, I have been putting the bread into a gallon-size zip lock plastic bag--often while it is still warm.  That leads to some moisture in the bag that keeps the bread from going stale, but also promotes the growth of SPORES.

Maybe it's the season.  I hadn't seen this problem during the summer, but lately it has been happening to every loaf before it is a week old.

This week, I am going to try storing the bread in a paper bag.  It might get stale, and for that matter, it will be exposed to more "spores in the air..." (You've listened to the song by now, haven't you?), but without the trapped moisture, maybe it will last the whole week.  Stay tuned for an update.  A new loaf of bread is still baking as I write.

Update (four days after baking)

Well, so far, I haven't seen any mold, and the bread is getting stale.  I did find this helpful website that discusses how to store homemade bread.  It turns out that their site is also about sourdough, even though I just searched for "bread storage" or something like that.  It talks about the need for air to circulate.  I might try a cloth towel next week, or maybe a cloth bag that I have.

Second update (almost a week after baking)

By the time I finished eating the loaf, it was pretty stale.  So, the paper grocery bag isn't the answer.  This week, I am trying a drawstring hemp bag that a pair of shoes came in.  If that is sort of successful, I might try our local kitchen gadget shop, The Concord Shop, to see if they have something suitable.