Hi Barb! I must tell you, last week you saved two grateful starters' lives (and me from a minor heart attack). Let me explain -- two weeks ago, the husband and I were going out of town for several days, maybe a week, so good starter mom that I am, I fetched the kids out of the fridge for an early weekly feeding, made up some crackers for the drive, put a pizza dough in the freezer, set my replenished jars on top the fridge to oomph up a bit, went back to packing, . . . and LEFT. Yep. Really didn't give it a thought until I was back home eight days later, unpacking the cooler, and then (I'm told) let go a string of expletives that had the husband running into the house, thinking we'd been robbed. I had actually been thinking, "Well, as soon as I get all this put away, I'll feed my starters. . .where ARE my starters??" and for the tiniest second I could just see those horrid sourdough thieves. That is, until I looked up. I almost cried, they looked so bad. I got them down for inspection and there was a good half or three-quarter inch of darkish fluid on top of them both, with the whole wheat the worst. Little AP looked purty bad, too, but she didn't smell nearly as strong as WW. And nary a tiny bubble between the two. I really did have the jars in my hands, ready to dump, when it occurred to me that I'd scanned this blog a while back, and before I did anything drastic, best to take a breath and fire up the laptop. I'm so glad I did. For whatever reason, I was thinking of refrigerated starters being forgotten and then revived -- not just plain forgotten (and forgotten again, in broad DAYLIGHT, no less, and at much warmer than room temperature. Remember, I'd been baking that day). Thank you so much, Barb. I knew I'd seen those pics of the starters with the black fluid; I just had to find you again. My husband actually heard my sigh of relief; he stuck his head in the door and asked, "Yay or Nay?" When I said yay, the man just smiled and asked me for carrot cake. I threw a pen at his head. Happy ending. It took a few (4) days, and more than a little flour, but the two- year-olds are thriving again. Today was feeding day, so I made Clay's Multigrain with the WW, and it turned out great. Tomorrow, with the AP, I'm baking a carrot cake to take to Mom's for Easter (don't tell the hubs; he thinks it's all for him since, of course, I made him wait almost a week). Again, Thank You So Much, And Happy Easter! Sheri Sidwell P.S. (and no matter what he says I did NOT say the *F* word five times. Once, maybe).

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