If you want to get a functional culture, without the process of "growing your own" or you feel the urge to experience a sourdough flavour that is different to that found in your own city and are prepared to pay for it, I suggest going to Sourdoughs International.

Here you will find yeast cultures from around the world, including one that I submitted, from Cape Town in South Africa. Sourdoughs International also sells an excellent book on sourdough with lots of recipes and plenty of advice and knowledge to help you along.

Alternatively, you might want to do the whole process yourself, and if you live in a country with a weak currency, maybe you cannot afford to purchase from America. If so, then read on... You will be using a combination of 2 types of living creatures to make your sourdough bread. The first, wild yeast, gets the dough bread rising so that you don't end up with a "dwarf war loaf" (with thanks to Terry Pratchett - great stories !!). The second is a bacteria that ferments the flour to create the sourness of the dough.

The first step is to get the yeast and associated bacteria. The two work as a team and the process of getting one also gets the other. Locate a spot preferably outside where you could leave a bowl in safety without it being "redistributed", or without the neighbour's cat waddling about in it. In the bowl put around 2 cups water and one of flour. I would suggest starting with white flour, unless you live in Cape Town where the yeast seems to work well with wholewheat flour.

You will need to cover the bowl with a very clean, scent-free cloth - rinse it heavily several times in water if you use a scented washing powder or softener until you can detect no scent as that would impact on the flavour of the bread. Leave the bowl outside for 3 days, stirring the mixture each morning.

At the end of the third day, add a cup full of flour and enough water to keep the same consistency of the mixture as before. Mix in well. Do this again on the evening of the fourth day and on that of the fifth.

By now you should be seeing bubbles in the mixture, with a little foam on top. If this is not the case, there are two possibilities. You either have not found yeast in that location (maybe due to too much pollution in the air for example), or you do have a yeast population but it has used up the resources in the mix and has gone dormant.

To establish which is the case, add some flour and water to the mix and check it over the next two hours. If you have the foam and bubbles now, congratulations - if not try another location on the other side of the garden, or consider ordering a yeast from Sourdoughs International.