By Giuseppe Nasti — Healthy Nasti Kitchen | SA Bakery Supplies
Fast food. Fast deliveries. Fast results. Fast success.
We want everything now, and when something takes longer than expected, we begin to question whether it’s worth waiting for.
But there’s something fascinating about making sourdough bread.
The dough doesn’t care how busy you are.
It doesn’t care about your deadlines, your ambitions, your responsibilities or how desperately you want it to be ready.
It follows its own process.
And the more I bake, the more I realise that sourdough isn’t simply teaching me how to make bread.
It’s teaching me how to live.
You Cannot Rush Something That Needs Time
When I first started baking sourdough, I believed that if I understood the ingredients, controlled the temperature and followed the right method, I could control the outcome.
And to a certain extent, I could.
I could choose the flour. Adjust the hydration. Strengthen the dough. Manage the temperature.
But I couldn’t demand that fermentation happen simply because I was ready.
The microorganisms in my starter had their own work to do.
Yeasts needed time to produce gas. Bacteria needed time to produce acids. The dough needed time to develop the characteristics that would eventually become its flavour, texture and structure.
I could influence the environment.
But I couldn’t negotiate with the process.
And isn’t that exactly what happens in life?
We can work hard, prepare ourselves, learn, improve and create the right conditions for success.
But we cannot always decide when the results will arrive.
Patience Is Not Doing Nothing
People often misunderstand patience.
They imagine it means sitting around, waiting for something to happen.
But anyone who has made sourdough knows that’s not true.
Patience in baking is active.
You observe the dough. You notice how it feels. You recognise when it needs strengthening and when it needs to be left alone.
You learn when to intervene.
And, perhaps more importantly, you learn when not to.
There comes a point when more folding won’t make the dough better.
More handling won’t accelerate fermentation.
More attention won’t necessarily improve the bread.
Sometimes, the most productive thing you can do is walk away.
Let the dough rest.
Let the process continue without you.
I think that’s a lesson many of us struggle to accept.
We associate progress with constant movement.
But not everything grows because we keep touching it.
The Dough Doesn’t Follow Your Clock
Imagine preparing two identical sourdough loaves.
Same flour. Same water. Same starter. Same method.
But one is fermenting in a warm kitchen, while the other is sitting in a cooler room.
They won’t necessarily be ready at the same time.
You can follow the same recipe, but the dough will respond to the conditions around it.
That’s why experienced bakers don’t rely exclusively on the clock.
They learn to read the dough.
Its volume. Its strength. Its movement. Its aroma.
And this is where sourdough becomes a beautiful metaphor for life.
Two people can follow similar paths and reach different milestones at different times.
One business grows quickly. Another takes years.
One person discovers their purpose early. Another finds it much later.
That doesn’t automatically mean one is succeeding and the other is failing.
It may simply mean they’re developing under different conditions.
Comparison becomes dangerous when we forget that every journey has its own environment.
The Most Important Changes Happen When We Cannot See Them
One of my favourite things about sourdough is what happens during fermentation.
From the outside, the dough can appear almost motionless.
Yet inside, an entire microscopic world is working.
Microorganisms are metabolising nutrients. Gas is accumulating. Acids are developing. The dough’s structure is changing.
Something is happening even when our eyes struggle to recognise it.
I’ve experienced something similar in entrepreneurship.
There have been times when I’ve worked incredibly hard without seeing the financial results I hoped for.
Days when I questioned my decisions.
Moments when I wondered whether all that effort was actually leading somewhere.
But looking backwards, I can see something I couldn’t see at the time.
I was learning.
Developing skills.
Building relationships.
Making mistakes that would eventually teach me better decisions.
Not every effort produced a successful outcome. Some were simply mistakes.
But even those experiences changed the person making the next decision.
Sometimes progress is invisible because we’re standing too close to it.
Too Early, Too Late, or Just Right
Of course, patience doesn’t mean waiting forever.
Leave sourdough fermenting beyond its ideal point and its structure may weaken. Bake it too early and it may lack the volume and flavour you hoped for.
Good bread requires more than waiting.
It requires judgement.
Knowing when the dough is ready.
Knowing when to stop interfering.
Knowing when to act.
Life is much the same.
There are moments when we need to wait, and moments when we need to make a decision.
Patience without action can become avoidance.
Action without patience can become recklessness.
The skill is learning the difference.
The Bread Will Be Ready When It’s Ready
After years of baking, I’ve come to appreciate something that sounds almost too simple.
I don’t control everything.
And I don’t need to.
I can create the conditions for good bread.
I can care for my starter, choose good ingredients, develop the dough and pay attention to the fermentation.
But eventually, I have to respect what is happening beyond my direct control.
I have to trust the process without becoming blind to the evidence in front of me.
And that’s how I want to approach life.
Work hard.
Stay curious.
Keep learning.
Be patient with the things that need time.
And when the moment comes, be ready to act.
Because the lesson sourdough has taught me isn’t that waiting guarantees success.
It doesn’t.
It’s that some things cannot become what they’re capable of becoming until they’ve been given the time to develop.
Maybe the same is true of us.
Giuseppe Nasti is a sourdough baker, entrepreneur and founder of Healthy Nasti Kitchen. Through the SA Bakery Supplies Baking Journal, he shares practical baking knowledge and the lessons he’s learned from years working with bread.
Enjoyed this reflection? Explore more articles on sourdough and fermentation in the SA Bakery Supplies Baking Journal.
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