Never use metal spoons to stir starter - only use spring water - chlorine kills wild yeast- keep the house at least 74 degrees. By using these techniques I have a healthy starter that has been going for almost 2 years. I refrigerate mine and feed at least once a week or right before I want to start making bread. I use my starter 3-4 hours after feeding - I have been turning out perfect beautiful bread using these little tweeks. Note: If you leave starter on the counter feed every 12 hours and change containers daily. I have dedicated plastic spoons and bowls for mixing - Seriously metal can react with the starter and cause it to die. Also if you do get a good batch going, instead of discarding starter when feeding, dry it and freeze it - I just spread mine out thinly on parchment paper on a cookie sheet, put it in the oven with only the oven light on. It will dry in about 24 hours. Then I crumble and and put it in a blender to get a fine powder. Put that in a freezer safe container and freeze for 10,000 years or more! Seriously it will not die! Here is a link where I learned to dry and re-hydrate my starter: http://breadtopia.com/starter_instructions/ I have shipped my dried starter all over the country to people who want to start their own!

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