Sudden internet fame overwhelms tiny Colorado sourdough group

GREELEY, Colo. — There’s a small group of people up in Greeley keeping a historic piece of sourdough lore alive – literally.

Now, they’re facing overwhelming demand for free samples of the sourdough starter they’ve cultivated for years, all because of a viral TikTok video that told sourdough enthusiasts all across the internet how to request a sample of their own.

The 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter Preservation Society, also known as Carl’s Friends, is the group that maintains the sourdough starter and sends out free samples to people who ask for them via email. 

For those unfamiliar with breadmaking, a sourdough starter is a colony of wild yeast and bacteria. It’s cultivated in a mixture of flour and water and is used to leaven bread.

The group claims their starter was carried by settlers on the Oregon Trail. The starter — known as Carl Griffith’s sourdough starter, or the Oregon Trail Sourdough, or Carl’s starter — was a family heirloom of its namesake, Carl Griffith. It supposedly dates back to 1847, which would make the starter about 177 years old.

Certain sourdough bread enthusiasts may be familiar with Carl’s starter. In the 1990s, Griffith shared the starter’s story and its history on Usenet, a version of the early Internet. Now, Carl’s starter even has its own Wikipedia page.

Griffith began sending samples out for free in the ’90s. When he passed away in 2000, Carl’s Friends kept up the practice. 

Instructions to request a sample can be found on the group’s unpretentious website. It involves sending an envelope with the requester’s address already written on it and mentioning the group’s website. The whole process is manual, and it’s handled by one woman.

Sudden internet fame has created a lot more work for Mary Buckingham. Requests for Carl’s starter have shot up to about 20 times the usual amount, and she can’t keep up.

Buckingham is the mailbox keeper, webmaster, and treasurer of Carl’s Friends. She’s in charge of stuffing sample envelopes, keeping track of them, and sending them out. Ever since the TikTok video was posted on Jan. 10, she’s been processing thousands of starter requests.

“In the last three weeks, we have gotten a volume that we normally get in a whole year. So it has really swamped us. And we’re only two people doing this. So it’s been hard,” Buckingham told 9NEWS.

Fulfilling requests from internet strangers has become a full-time job.

“Normally it’s like a two- and three-hour job on the weekend. And it isn’t that big a deal. But now it’s every day, eight to 10 hours a day. No breaks for going on three weeks now,” Buckingham said. 

The demand’s been so difficult to keep up, she had to leave a note on the group’s website.

It reads, “Jan 2024: We have been slammed with thousands of requests (20 times the usual amount) so please be patient in the time it will take to receive your starter.”

It’s tough to keep track.

“Last week, we had 1,355, not including a couple hundred small envelopes I haven’t even processed yet. And that was just last week,” Buckingham said. “Well, actually, that was the week before. I’m starting on last week now. Today’s the first day I’ve been able to start those.”

Sourdough starters are an ancient technology, according to Buckingham. And while she’s ready to get back to her usual day-to-day, she’s glad the tradition is being picked up by a new generation of breadmakers.

“I would like this to come down to a more manageable amount, because I do have other things to do. But I mean, it’s nice that the youth seem to be very interested in this. That’s the whole new generation. So that’s good. Because people in our society are usually pretty old,” Buckingham said.

As of Monday night, more than 40,000 people have watched the TikTok that spiraled Carl’s starter into modern internet fame. So if you’re interested in a sample, be patient and give Carl’s Friends a minute to catch up.

More from Next with Kyle Clark:

SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Next with Kyle Clark