After a few months of on-again, off-again efforts I finally have a sourdough starter that I have been able to feed, use, maintain, and refrigerate! I tried whole grain rye starters, rye first then white, with or without grapefruit juice, organic grapes mildly crushed in cheesecloth left for days and so on. In the end, a concoction of organic grapes, white flour and water worked. Ten days into the process (I had actually left it for dead after a disappointing start) I noticed tiny bubbles effervescing from a ten day old bed of sludge up through a deep layer of red-brown hooch, and figured since it was mold-free it probably wouldn't kill me. I poured off most of the hooch, discarded the bag of grapes (it wasn't rotten like I thought it would be), scooped out 4 ounces of goop and started the feeding cycle. The first couple feedings didn't give much but I saw faint bubbles so I kept going. In the end, my patience paid off. It now doubles in size after about 6 hours, so pretty active stuff! I've moved on to playing with the balance of acids in the bread (using my fridge) to get the flavor I'm looking for. I really appreciated the emphasis on this site and others about how much this process can vary from person to person, and day to day. One early problem I had was that I would follow the precise feeding schedule given in the recipe's and the starter would die. Maybe it's the temperature in my house but my starter ferments quickly so I have to discard and feed frequently or let it bulk up and then put it in the fridge. Once I learned to let the dough guide me, it was a lot easier,

• Reply