sourdough rye

The fruit stand I drove by all the time at the bottom of the grade in Escondido carried the Dudley breads, and so sometimes they would have sourdough rye, which was my favorite. Yesterday in Wal*Mart I picked up a loaf of Pepperidge Farm Rye Pumpernickel Swirl....I toasted a piece at breakfast and put my poached egg on it. Pretty tasty. Googleing pumpernickel, I find that it is a dark rye from Germany, made with a sourdough starter. In fact, the Wikipedia article says most rye bread uses a sourdough starter. You live and you learn. My favorite legend about rye bread is that if rye flour develops mold and you go ahead and make bread out of it anyway, you end up with everybody tripping out, like on LSD. The mold creates a drug that is psychoactive. So in a bad Winter in Salem all they had to eat was moldy rye, and the whole town got freaky and started burning witches. You live and you learn? Or do you take your rye bread history with a grain of salt.....