Hi Jennie, I'm sorry to hear you're having so much trouble getting a sourdough starter established and rising! It's not uncommon for the process to take longer than the 5-7 days we indicate in our recipe, and patience almost always wins out when it comes to sourdough starters, but there's no doubt that it can get frustrating waiting for things to happen. 

It's hard to say exactly what went wrong without a little more information about your process, but the next time you give it a try I would encourage you to stick with it and perhaps alter your process a bit if you get similarly stuck. Here are some things that might give your starter a boost and get it rising:

1. Stick your starter in a slightly warmer spot. While you don't want to go too warm, 75-80°F can encourage things to happen a bit faster during the creation process. 
2. Consider shrinking the size of your starter, at least until it begins rising predictably. This will at least save on flour as you wait. Our smaller starter recipe fits nicely in an 8-ounce canning jar and only requires 20g each of starter, water and flour for each feeding. Once your starter is rising well, it's easy enough to build it back up to the normal maintenance amount. 

3. Try this alternative feeding routine, which is meant to increase the acidity of the starter environment and encourage the yeast to kick in: 

   *Feed only once a day 

   *Feed 2:1:1 (starter:water:flour, by weight)

   *Feed with whole wheat flour instead of Unbleached All-Purpose

   (For example, if you're following our regular starter process, this alternative feeding routine would look like this. Feed once daily: 1 cup (113g starter) + 1/4 cup (57g) water + 1/2 cup (57g) whole wheat flour. For a smaller starter version of this routine, your once daily feeding would look like this: 30g starter + 15g water + 15g whole wheat flour.)

   *Once the starter begins rising predictably (two days in a row), switch back to twice daily feedings and the 1:1:1 (starter:water:flour, by weight) routine, gradually transitioning to feeding with AP flour over the course of several feedings. Once your starter is predictably doubling within 6-8 hours after a feeding and has a pleasant aroma, then you're good to go!

   I hope this helps! Let us know how it goes!

    

    

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