After keeping an eye out for it for, well, years – I finally have a source for fresh yeast. I normally use active dry yeast, which keeps forever in the fridge and is dirt cheap if bought in large quantities. It works fine, but the speed and volume of rise out of this fresh/compressed stuff is incredible. Last night I made a large ‘boule au levain’ with far too much ‘levain’ or ‘starter’. I like funky ‘off’ smells in cheese, but not in bread apparently. So this morning I’m making a straight lean dough boule with 1/4 whole wheat flour, and again, it’s rising like crazy. The problem with fresh yeast is it goes bad, and for a dollar or so, I get enough yeast to make about 23 loaves of bread – or about 46 baguettes. So it will go bad before I’m done with it. But big deal – it’s a buck and change…