Use cases
Sourdough Log (where it earns its place)
On Sourdough Log:
Three weeks ago you baked the best loaf of your life, and now you can't remember whether it was 72% hydration or 78%. The Sourdough Log keeps each bake on record — the loaf, the hydration, the date, and a notes box for feed schedule and crumb — so the good ones stop being accidents. On this page: three concrete ways the amateur in the old sense, someone who loves the thing for itself reaches for the Sourdough Log, and the signals that tell you it fits.
When the Sourdough Log earns its place
As a tracker, the Sourdough Log keeps bake / loaf, hydration %, date, and feed schedule, crumb, notes — no more, no less — so the record is small enough to actually read back.
Most tools in this category, Notion at $120 a year, or $12 a month and Airtable at $240 a year, or $24 a month, solve a version of the same problem, then bill you for the privilege of remembering it. The Sourdough Log takes the opposite bargain: one file, once, kept.
Three scenarios drawn from baking, food, and hobby
The everyday one: you open the Sourdough Log on a Tuesday morning, log what needs logging, and close it. Two minutes. The record is more honest than the app that pinged you to remind you.
The specific one: the everyday task it's built to hold, day to day — the workflow it names is the record that most needs a home outside a subscription. Some people use only the Sourdough Log. Some fold it into a Swiss Knife next to five others. Both are correct.
The out-of-band one: months later, you want to look back. The Sourdough Log still opens because it is a file. There is no login lapsed, no export deadline missed. The record is where you left it.
Signals it fits the amateur in the old sense, someone who loves the thing for itself
You want a hobby log that behaves like a document, not a service. You are comfortable typing your own numbers in. You would rather own the file than rent the log. Weight in the knife: 1. Manual: no manual — the tool is its own instructions.
Signals it fits
- You do this kind of record-keeping more than onceThe Sourdough Log pays back every time you don't have to reinvent the shape.
- You want it offline, on your own machineNo account, no cloud, no vendor between you and the record.
- You're comfortable with a hand-kept fileThe Sourdough Log is a document. It behaves like one.
Questions people ask
How do I keep track of my sourdough bakes and hydration?
One entry per bake: name the loaf, note the hydration percentage and date, and write whatever mattered — how you fed the starter, how the crumb turned out, what you'd change. Next time, you look it up instead of guessing.
Is this a full replacement for Notion?
For the working core of what most people use it for — keeping bake / loaf, hydration %, date, and feed schedule, crumb, notes — yes. For the default when a hobby needs a database, no. The Sourdough Log is deliberately smaller and more honest about its scope.
Who is the Sourdough Log not for?
The amateur in the old sense, someone who loves the thing for itself's opposite: a team that needs shared cloud state, or someone who wants automation over ownership. Use a SaaS for that; use this for the file.
A hobby log that opens where you left it, on the machine you left it on.