Hi Nancy, do you have a sourdough starter? If you do, how do you normally feed it? For our starter routine, "discard" is the portion of sourdough starter you remove when you need to feed your starter and you're not planning to bake with it (in order to keep the components of the starter in balance). The discard can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a few weeks and used in recipes calling for sourdough discard. When you're planning to bake a recipe calling for "ripe" starter, this means starter that you've fed at room temperature and allowed to rise to its highest point (it's considered ripe when it's at this high point, or just starting to fall). In this case, the portion you normally discard is used to add to your recipe, and the remaining portion of starter is fed again. Since discard is often used directly from the refrigerator, it's typically not as active as "ripe" starter and it tends to be used more as a flavor enhancer. 

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