The life span of a single leaven before it needs renewal is five ovens or eight hours. If leaven is left to itself it will sour completely and give off ammonia. If you wash your hands in the bakery, make sure you rinse away the scraps of dough from the sink waste. In such places may microbes inimical to leaven develop. They will spread through the bakery and you will have to ditch your present leaven culture.
Bread only comes alive with leaven, never with yeast or other procedures.
Yeastbread tastes like yeast, not bread. When I read this the first time, I admit to wondering who could take it seriously. Maybe the salty aseptic atmosphere of the Belgian seaside would better fit the author's aims. Soaking the grain in this manner activates the germinating enzymes and hormones. The body of the grain unground but opened a first chance to develop its own life instead of being digested by microbes.