It's December - the month of generosity and giving, and we don't know about you, but we're starting to plan Christmas gifts! We have a few ideas to at least get you started and to think about potential sourdough gift ideas for the sourdough lover in your life. Or you - if that's you!
We think some of these are great ideas for gifts you could purchase or, with talent and time, make yourself! (It's easy to appreciate a heartfelt, homemade gift.)
Starting things light: a couple cute Christmas cards
In our last post on sourdough puns, we came across this absolutely adorable sourdough boule card... and so we scoured the internet for others... and came across a couple amazing seasonal sourdough themed cards! If you're in Canada, you may need to wait, like us, for the Canada Post labour dispute to end so you can send your card(s), but even so...
- Summit Sourdough - a company that specializes in unique, bread-themed greeting cards that combine wit, charm and quality. They are based in Canada, too! We totally love their May your holidays be full of dough and snow card (shown below!) and their Merry and Bright Sourdough Starter card.
- If you have construction paper, a ready pen or watercolours, you could also make your own sourdough themed handmade Christmas cards to mail to loved ones.
- Or - closely related, gift tags, which are smaller and might take less time to make.
Stocking stuffers
Sometimes all you need is that right *something* to help fill the stocking. There are a few gems here that we can get excited about.
- Again, from Summit Sourdough - these incredible sourdough themed ornaments.
- Depending on the size of your stocking... any of Kaslo Sourdough's pasta bags (though maybe not the bulk!).
- A round or oval banneton - proofing bread basket, such as this one from Lee Valley.
- Or, relatedly, a bread lame - a simple cutting knife used to score the top surface of sourdough loaves before baking them. These can be used to make designs on artisanal loaves for the home sourdough bakers in your life.
- And for that matter - any really good bread knife! There are so many different ones out there! You simply can't make a good slice of fresh sourdough bread happen without a decent bread knife to slice it!
Other gifts
There are great variety of options for other sourdough gift ideas for the sourdough lovers in your life. A few that come to mind for us:
- So many amazing books on fermentation (generally) or sourdough specifically. You could go for a beginner friendly book on fermentation like Charlotte Pike's "Fermented". Or, something quite specific like Mike Gandolfini's "The Sourdough Bible." There is a lot to learn about sourdough and fermentation... and lots of books to help with this!
- For those of you feeling really generous, you can purchase a Kaslo Sourdough pasta subscription for year round sourdough joy delivered directly to your loved ones' doors.
- Are you crafty or good at painting? You could draw or make a gorgeous classic style sourdough still life painting inspired by this one by Kaja Norum (Instagram).
- You could try your hand at making your friend a set of artisan bread stencils inspired by these ones that are on Amazon (shown in use below). Some stiff construction style paper would work well for ones that could be used several times over.
Non-material sourdough gifts: Friendship and emotional support
The following three tips are for those friends or family members in your life who keep a sourdough culture... and who don't necessarily want a physical gift. After all, the best chosen words really can warm the heart!
- Volunteer to be the recipient of any of their baked goodies. That way it's always easy to compliment them on the baking they share with you. You can also be a reason for them to keep on baking and making all the sourdough goodies.
- The gift of an idea! You can do a bit of research about the many, many different ways that a person can use their sourdough (beyond bread...)... such as in cakes, cookies, and pancakes and crepes, and have those ready to hand in case your friend needs an idea. And even better - you can volunteer to be the taste-tester!
- Ask about how their culture is. It takes a lot of regular care and feeding to keep a sourdough culture healthy and happy. The sourdough enthusiast in your life will undoubtedly appreciate your inquiry.
Phew - this post is getting quite long, so we'd better stop here! Hopefully some of the ideas here spark something for you and how you can plan a thoughtful gift (to make or buy) for that special sourdough person in your life!
Back to news
