Actors Patrick Duffy and Linda Purl use Fairbanks sourdough starter in new bread recipe

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU/KTVF) - Actors Patrick Duffy and Linda Purl visited Fred Meyer West in Fairbanks Monday to promote a line of sourdough breads being marketed through Kroger, using a sourdough starter Duffy said was gifted to his mother by a Fairbanks woman when the family lived in the Interior in 1952.

“This is a full-circle moment for us, for me, for my family to be able to come back here... to end up here where the actual sourdough started all that time ago,” Duffy said.

With his family having kept the starter alive for the last 74 years, the actor said, “It has a provenance. It’s been unadulterated in our family all that time. I grew up eating this sourdough bread and sourdough pancakes from the time I was three years old.”

According to Purl, “A little over five years ago, Patrick one night said, ‘You know, we should start a company,’ because we would take it to, Patrick would bake it. We’d take it to friends houses. They’d say, ‘This is really good.’”

During their Fred Meyer visit, the two presented a check for $1,500 to the Fairbanks Community Food Bank.

This, according to Purl, this falls in line with the actors’ goal of giving all of the profits from this venture toward anti-hunger causes. The pair are working with Fred Meyer for that purpose.

“We’re going to donate 100% of our profits to food-based charities, so that would be Meals on Wheels or food pantries or things like that, all of which Kroger has vetted already, so they know the best ones of those organizations that utilize the money most economically,” Duffy said.

Having already participated in a plane ride around Denali during their visit, Duffy and Purl sat down at Fred Meyer West for a meet and greet, signing autographs and shaking hands with community members, who also each received a gift bag from Kroger.

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com