is there a way to make your own yeast?

[Lloyd Smale]

I was wondering how the people of old made bread. Im sure they could go and buy packets of dry yeast

[blind ear]

A search of how to make yeast gave a lot of sites. ear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-GmnAD4J7E

[jkpq45]

Just mix some flour and water into a gluelike paste and set it in a bowl on top of the fridge.

Wild yeast, bacteria, etc. will come by, innoculate the "starter," and give you the means to rise bread, pancakes, etc.  It's how the old timers did it--back in the day, bread always had a sour flavor from the lactobacillus (what gives yogurt and sourdough its tang.)

[lakota]

You can get a sample of dried sourdough starter for free from Friends of Carl. Thats how I got my starter. Its good stuff.
I neglected mine in the back of the fridge for over a year. I sent for a new sample but in the meantime I tried to see if I could coax mine back to life. Today it is now doubling in size again. I am going to bake a loaf this week somtime.
http://carlsfriends.net/

[Ranger99]

not all of the ancient folk had leavened bread.
a lot of not so ancient frontier folk here didn't
use leavened bread. my folks depended a lot
on hoe cakes, or some folks call'em johnny cakes
which is just lard, salt and cornmeal fried up.
when they had money (seldom) or something to trade
to the peddler, they bought baking soda to put in
with flour or cornmeal and such to make regular bread.
they didn't use sourdough much as they didn't
have wheat flour as much as cornmeal.

[blind ear]

The simplest way I read to make your own yeast was to put some molded rasins in some sugar water with a little flour in it and let it start to bubble in a semi warm spot. How do you go about getting molded raisens? Damp raisins in a semi warm spot? ear

[chefjeff]

I'm trying my best not to make a bad joke!

[blind ear]

I'm trying my best not to make a bad joke!

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Aw come on now. Won't hurt my feelings and sure can't be any worse than all of my korney cracks.  ear