Hi Catherine! I have a few thoughts on your sourdough bread questions. I have never bought an already made starter, but have started my own several times. Are you keeping it in the fridge or on the counter? I have tried keeping mine in the fridge before, but it is never as sour and strong as when it lives on the counter, so I leave mine out all the time unless I go away for a while. Is it bubbly and sour smelling? It should be.....if not, then it probably is not really active. If your starter is good and sour then your bread will be, too. I feed mine a half cup each of flour and water every day, and my bread is very nice and sour. I would recommend trying that. The bread I usually make uses 4 cups of starter and makes two loaves. I started with using a recipe, but have kind of changed it over the years and now just make it by memory and intuition, adding whatever I like. :) Sometimes I want a sweeter bread, like oatmeal molasses or something, so I just add a cup or so of starter to a basic dough with oatmeal, molasses, and some butter. It works just fine! To us, bread made with no sourdough tastes pretty bland. I put it in our waffles, pancakes, biscuits, etc. as well. :) Try following your intuition with bread making instead of a recipe. If you have down the basics of yeast, water, flour, salt ratios, and you know how a bread dough should feel, you can pretty much ad lib and turn out lovely, unique breads tailored to your taste! It is so much fun and more relaxing to me, than trying to follow a recipe to the letter. I love to read recipes to glean ideas and tips, and then apply them to my baking. Just ideas. I hope maybe one of them will help you! Best of wishes with your starter. If all else fails, just start your own. It couldn't be easier or more fun!

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