Island Thyme Soap Company

08/02/2026

Bulk fermentation is a chemical balancing act. 🧪

You’re trying to let your wild yeast and lactic/acetic acids produce enough gas for a massive rise—without letting them eat so much protein that your dough structure collapses into a flat, gummy brick.

The biggest trap? Relying on a static 4-hour clock. If your kitchen or dough temperature changes by even a couple of degrees, your timer is officially wrong.

That’s why I built DoughPace. It’s a dynamic, cloud-based bulk fermentation companion.

You input your dough temp, kitchen temp, and loaf type, and the engine recalculates your timeline and stretch-and-fold schedule in real-time as your environment shifts.

No subscriptions. No downloads.

Just perfect, predictable oven spring every time. 🍞✨

Tap the link in my bio to get lifetime access and stop playing the guessing game.

07/14/2026

Coming home to northern Ohio after years in Florida — a personal essay on homecoming, Hygge, new beginnings, and a deer that showed up right on cue.

Coming home to northern Ohio after years in Florida — a personal essay on homecoming, Hygge, new beginnings, and a deer that showed up right on cue.

05/17/2026

Feed it at peak. Here’s why it matters.
Your starter is a living ecosystem — wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria suspended in flour and water, doing the slow, quiet work of fermentation every single day.
When you feed it fresh flour, the microbes wake up. They eat the sugars, release gas, and your starter rises. That highest point of the rise?
That’s peak. And it’s the sweet spot you’re always chasing.
At peak your starter is at its strongest. After peak, the food starts running low. The structure loosens. The bubbles weaken. That’s not a dead starter — that’s a hungry one.
So feed it at peak. Not after the crash.
One more thing — peak doesn’t happen on a schedule. Temperature, feeding ratio, and your starter’s strength all shift the timing. Trust your jar, not your timer.
A strong starter isn’t about perfection. It’s about paying attention. 🫙
Save this for your next bake day.

05/14/2026

Ever tried to start a sourdough starter and it never came to life?

h/t to the Sourdough Queen, for the clip from the Music Video . (Please don’t sue me 😘) Taylor was the inspiration for me to try my hand at to begin with. If you haven’t listened to Life of a Showgirl yet, what is wrong with you?

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05/05/2026

Want to build a starter from scratch, or do you want to bake bread?

Why not both?

1. The Fast Track: Grab an established Island Thyme Robust Dehydrated Starter. Rehydrate in 3–5 days and bake by the weekend.
2. The Slow Play: Keep building your scratch starter on the side.

What you’ll receive: 10g of dehydrated, shelf-stable starter. Includes a link to my fool-proof rehydration guide and email support so you can have your starter bubbling in 3–5 days.

Even better? FREE SHIPPING!

Science doesn’t have to be a waiting game. Get the best of both worlds.

🔗 Grab your Dehydrated Sourdough Starter in the Sourdough Lab at islandthymesoap.com. Link in our bio!

05/04/2026

When Will My Starter Be Ready To Bake?
The most often asked question I see from people just beginning their sourdough journey.
This information and lots more available on my Cove Living Blog. Link in bio.

05/02/2026

You followed the instructions for creating your own sourdough starter to the letter. For fourteen days, you have faithfully fed your starter, given it a name, monitored its rise, kept it warm, and watched it bubble to life. By every measure, it looks exactly like the pictures online. It doubles. It smells pleasantly tangy.

And then you bake with it—and your loaf comes out dense, flat, and humbling. I explain why and what to do about it in my latest Cozy Cove Living Blog latest post. Link in bio

05/02/2026

You followed the instructions for creating your own sourdough starter to the letter. For fourteen days, you have faithfully fed your starter, given it a name, monitored its rise, kept it warm, and watched it bubble to life. By every measure, it looks exactly like the pictures online. It doubles. It smells pleasantly tangy.

And then you bake with it—and your loaf comes out dense, flat, and humbling. I explain why and what to do about it in my latest blog post! Link in bio!

04/29/2026

04/29/2026

One of the most frustrating challenges of sourdough baking? Nailing bulk fermentation!
baking