About Us
Hi! I’m Amanda, a “crunchy with a side of Chick-fil-a” wife and mother of six beautiful earthly children and three angel babies. I started my sourdough journey in 2020, like many people during the worldwide pandemic with high hopes and very high expectations, which were quickly dashed to pieces. I attempted to make my own sourdough starter three times that year, failing every time.I was left feeling extremely frustrated and defeated, and gave up on my dream of becoming a “world-renowned artisan sourdough baker”, or at least a dream of being able to provide nourishing baked goods for my family.
It wasn't until the summer of 2021 that a friend texted me late one night and asked if we wanted an extra loaf of fresh sourdough she had just finished baking. I immediately responded with a resounding, “YES!” because who turns down fresh bread, even at 9PM ;). After tasting that loaf, I knew I had to attempt to make sourdough again. She told me to pick up some sourdough starter from our other neighbor (this is the neighbor I inherited my 30+ year old starter from) and sent over a link to a bread recipe.
Over the next few weeks, I had figured out feeding the starter part, but again continued to fail over and over at making an edible loaf. I felt like a failure. So I turned to the one person that has always been there for me when I'm struggling... God. :) I earnestly prayed and asked what to do to make this successful for me and my family because I so desperately wanted to make this work. Not only for better nutrition, but because finances were extremely tight and we honestly couldn't afford to buy bread at times. (For those of you struggling, please know I've been there and my heart goes out to you).
God heard me and answered my humble little prayer about bread. He inspired me to make the "perfect" sourdough loaf, which is now our "Heavenly Hydrated Sourdough Recipe" in our cookbook and what I've used for over two years now. It truly makes the BEST crispy and pillowy soft sourdough loaf. I continued to make sourdough bread and sourdough baked goods for my family and friends for the next year and half, never intending to pursue sourdough as a “business”. But something soon would happen that completely shattered me and changed the trajectory of our lives.
In 2022, we lost our baby girl, Eden, in my second trimester, due to an unexplained miscarriage. I had previously had six healthy and full-term pregnancies, so this came as a complete shock. I hadn't baked for months prior, due to a very challenging first trimester (I’m mostly bed ridden and have moderate Hyperemesis Gravidarum “HG”) and again, felt beyond broken. I felt like I had failed at something I was normally very “good” at. I was heartbroken. So again, I turned to Father and asked Him what to do. He urged me to get back in the kitchen. I baked my way through grief and slowly but surely, felt myself come back to the present. I found healing through making sourdough and found myself coming back to the present. However, it was still a challenging season financially for our family.
In 2019, my husband and I decided to move to South Jordan, UT (Daybreak Community) to pursue a job that seemed like our “big break”. A month later, the company pulled the plug and we were left with thousands of dollars to cover monthly, five children to feed, and another one due at any day. It was terrifying. For eight months, we couldn’t find work, but by the Grace of God, family members, and our Church we were able to “get by”. There were weeks where we’d have $0 in our bank account, but God always provided. He used people in our community to serve us. It was beyond humbling. We learned to trust Him completely and learned that he had our backs, no matter what. We took comfort in the passages in the Bible about the Sparrows:
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; therefore you are of more value than many sparrows.” Matt 10:29-31.
“Therefore, I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather in barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” Matt 6: 25-34
This is why our companies have the Sparrow name in it.
In 2020, during a worldwide pandemic, God encouraged us to create a carpentry company named: The Wooden Sparrow. When businesses were closing, ours was thriving. My husband was all self taught, but being who he is, was extremely successful. We had the opportunity to build some incredible custom projects for our community through the end of 2022. But we were still just barely getting by. No cushion. There were months we still had to rely on others. Which was hard. In November of 2022, Father told us to close the door on our carpentry business because He had “something better”. We had NO IDEA what we were going to do next. We still owed many clients their deposits back, but God provided a way to pay them all back by the date He told me to tell them. It was truly a miracle. In December of 2022, I found out I was pregnant again. It brought back so many feelings and fear that something would happen again like it did to Eden, but I trusted and moved forward in faith.
In the beginning of 2023, we followed promptings to amp up our sourdough TikTok and create a beginners sourdough master-course called: “Mastering the Art of Sourdough”. I thought God was crazy, but after everything we had been through, I didn’t question Him, just started running. When we started I think I had 2k followers. A few days before we were supposed to drop the course live in February, I miscarried again at 15 weeks. We were again, heart broken, but dropped the course a week later. A week later Father then told us to start dehydrating and sell our 30+ year old starter we named “Eden” after our first baby girl we had lost the year before. We launched our Etsy site the end of March and things started to blow up. A month later, Father encouraged me to create a digital cookbook.I started to work on it in April, but unexpectedly and honestly begrudgingly found out I was pregnant again. I was in denial. I didn’t want to go through that again, having already had two D&C’s from the previous two miscarriages. But again, I moved forward in faith. I worked on our cookbook throughout the entire first trimester (I wasn’t sick like my previous pregnancies, which was a blessing) and the week before I was supposed to drop it live, we ended up losing that baby at 16 weeks in the middle of July and then dropped the cookbook end of July. I don’t know why we have had so many challenges and losses in this journey of creating Sourdough Sparrow, but I know that it helped me become the woman He needed me to become. Our story is full of grief and loss. I could have gone into the dark abyss and stayed there. I was angry at God for awhile, but decided that He knew best. That those children I carried weren’t meant for this world. All they needed was a body and got to go Home. While there have been many storms, we have seen so many rainbows. We didn’t get our “rainbow baby”, but what we did receive was an unwavering faith in His plan and the knowledge that when something is His time, nothing can stop it. We wouldn’t be here without Him. It is an honor to be the steward of our Eden starter, to help teach you these ancestral skills and to help you find joy, healing, and purpose in your own sourdough journey. Thank you for being here. Thank you for loving and supporting us. We are honored to be a part of your journey.