Perhaps you’re at the point in your life and your relationship where you’re considering having a child. You feel like you have enough love to give; and you and your partner get along really well. Sure, you have the occasional fight, but who doesn’t? Maybe if you do more things together.

You both like to eat. And bread is yummy. What about making bread? You can definitely do it together, produce something together. After all, isn’t a child the ultimate joint production?

You start making various kinds of breads together. The two of you start giving away loaves as gifts. Everyone is amazed at the wonder that is this amazingly compatible couple making quality bread together. Many people wonder why you don’t have a baby. Every time they see you – even the few times you can be seen without the company of the other – they ask you when you’re going to have a kid. They figure if you can make bread together then logically a baby is the next step.

You two aren’t so sure. Thing is, this bread thing is really fun. Would a child mess with your bread making? What bread has brought together let no baby put asunder? In the mean time the two of you continue on your bread obsession.

To that end you look for more bread-laden activities you can do together. Enter Local: Mission Eatery. It’s a new lunch place with, yes, a mission. Local, organic, seasonal, all the good stuff that’s looking to be a true sea change in the food world rather than a trend. You both like that, of course.

You peruse their website, which is beautifully designed and well written. And you see they conduct food “labs,” the first of which is on … bread. Starters to be specific.

This, this, was to be your next step in the wide world of bread. You had been using commercial yeast for all your baking endeavors. A starter is a way to put yeast into bread by utilizing the yeast and bacteria in the environment. San Francisco is known for its sourdough bread because of the unique bacteria in our air.

The two of you attend the class, together, of course. You are blown away by the knowledge of guest baker Danny Gabriner of Sour Flour, "a bakery dedicated to building community through bread." The both of you take copious notes.

Apparently starters are named, gendered, and otherwise anthropomorphized by their makers. Hey, don’t people do that to children? And starters have to be fed, sometimes more than once a day. You’d heard that children require the same, and more. Starters expand so much that they can take over your kitchen, and life. Your friends with kids are all about those kids, aren’t they?

You look at each other and you know. You’re not ready to raise a starter, much less a child. You both also know that that is fine because you have each other.

You had fun at the class. You got to taste several breads including two baked in class and one brought by a classmate. You got to take home a loaf of a very tasty sour dough that made a great sandwich in the panini press you share with each other … but not with any children. You definitely want to attend more classes at Local: Mission Eatery.

Maybe a pet ….

For more information:  "Breaducation."