When I started prepping, one of the first things I would store was bulk wheat since it is fairly cheap, has a shelf life of 30+ years and best of all, I love making bread.

However, there was one major thing I overlooked…

Where would I get the yeast?

Although you can store wheat for 30+ years, yeast’s shelf life will only last about a year before it starts to die off and become ineffective. So unless you enjoy eating unleavened Matzah bread, you’ll be forced to consume a lot of bread bricks during a SHTF situation.

This realization led me on a journey to find out how to make homemade yeast or leavened bread without needing a sourdough starter.

For years I had looked around but could never figure it out until I stumbled upon a women who learned how to make natural yeast while over in Japan.

Since then, I’ve been playing around with making natural yeast and have had some great success so in this article, I’d like to go into detail on how you can make your own homemade yeast using common foods found in your home or in the wild.

How to Make Homemade Yeast

What’s surprising is that yeast occurs naturally on the skins most fruits (dried or fresh), vegetables, even herbs found in the wild (like Mint) and can be easily cultivated the same way using the following procedure:

	Step 1: Fill a glass jar up to a quarter to a half full with your sliced fruit, vegetable, or herb (I used apples from my apple tree). If you are using fruits (apples or grapes are both excellent to try first) or vegetables be sure that the skin is not peeled off.
	Step 2: Fill the rest of the jar up with water until you are about 3/4 of the way full.
	Step 3: Close the jar and leave in a warm area (in the sun or by a stove) for around 3 days or until a good amount of bubbles start forming (the bubbles indicate that the yeast is reacting with the carbohydrates in your fruit, veggie etc).
	Here’s a close-up view of the finished yeast water.
	Step 4: Use your yeast water in place of the water called for in your bread recipe.
	Step 5: Knead your bread as usual and let it sit…
	Step 6: Until it rises — just like you were useing commercial yeast!
Step 7: Bake and enjoy!

Now it’s Your Turn

Try it out yourself and let me know how it works for you. If you have any comments or questions be sure to leave them in the comments section below and I’ll be glad to help you.

• Posted in Food Storage