I must be doing something wrong. I have the starter in the crock, the rim is not as nearly as clean as in your pictures. I never throw anything out! I just feed (and let sit for 1 -2 hours depending on my schedule) and then use 16 oz for the Sour dough rye bread from your website. Feed again to make up for the double amount of taking out. It is not really sour, I would like it to have more pronounced sour flavor, on the other hand my family loves it this way. How can I get my rim to look cleaner? Take everything out, wash the crock and then put it back? Erie, yes, to get a clean rim, take the starter out, wash the crock, and return the starter. BTW, the crustiness on top isn't hurting anything, as far as your starter is concerned; but if you don't like it, feel free to give the crock a good going-over periodically. For more sour bread, try letting the shaped loaves rest overnight in the fridge. Oftentimes, the sourness of the bread isn't contingent on the sourness of the starter so much as how you handle the dough; dough that's chilled will allow the yeast to give off more acetic acid, which is more sour (think vinegar). If all else fails - try adding 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon sour salt (citric acid) to the dough, which totally ramps up the sour flavor. PJH

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