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Oregon Trail sourdough starter draws well over 1,000 requests in a week after TikTok video

Mary Buckingham logs one of thousands of letters in the basement office at her home in Greeley on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. The letters are from people requesting free sour dough starter that has lineage dating back from the Oregon Trail in 1847. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Source image from TikTok users flood Greeley mailbox with requests for 177-year-old sourdough starter. denverpost.com.Full-size image

A TikTok video in January sent requests for Carl Griffith's 1847 Oregon Trail sourdough starter pouring into a Greeley mailbox. Mary Buckingham, who has kept the mailbox since 2000, called it "an unbelievable flood." This week brought well over 1,000 requests. A typical winter brings between 30 and 150. Anyone can mail a self-addressed stamped envelope and get a free starter back, one with a claimed lineage to the Oregon Trail. "It raises bread very nicely," Buckingham said.

Bakers anywhere in the world can still get a free starter with a claimed Oregon Trail lineage for the cost of a stamped envelope. The arrangement goes back to Griffith, who shared his dried starter with anyone who wrote to him.

Source: TikTok users flood Greeley mailbox with requests for 177-year-old sourdough starter (denverpost.com). Spotted via Nice News.

Written by the HappyGood desk from the primary source linked above and checked against it. Every story links its source. Corrections: [email protected].

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