Yes, my sourdough scared me. I’m very easily scared. My own shadow scares me! 🙂
When I first began making sourdough bread, I kept my started in the fridge. There are so many ways to feed and keep sourdough starter but I found that it works best for me to keep it on the counter. It’s always ready and it stays very active. Most of the research I’ve done says that if you’re keeping it on the counter, it should be fed twice a day. I’ve been feeding mine once a day for several months and it’s fine.
During the dishwasher installation, which involved removing cabinets, cutting down drawers, all of which took way longer than it should have but . . you already know that because I complained hourly on here about it, I totally neglected the starter. I couldn’t get into the kitchen to work. There were screws and levels and painter’s tape and lots of sawdust all over my kitchen so I just stayed out of there.
My starter went probably 4 or 5 days without being fed. When I could finally get back into the kitchen and start working, I fed it. Instead of bubbling up and rising and looking all happy and frisky, it sat there, made very few weak bubbles, did not rise and looked completely spent. I was very glad I had preserved some of the dried starter in the freezer but didn’t want to have to go through the re-activation effort.
I continued to feed the starter every day, sometimes twice a day. On the 6th day, which was Friday, I noticed it was finally looking a little more alive.
I awoke Saturday morning to this:
An Active Starter
It was alive and well again! It had risen, it had pushed the plastic top right off the top of the jar. I was a happy sourdough mama! I love the big jar with the blue lid and I had two of those but gave Chad one for his sourdough. When I saw what my starter had done, I knew it was time to make bread again.
Sourdough Bread
I told Vince . . “Yay! I can make bread again. The starter is alive and well.” He said “I wondered why you bought a loaf of bread but I wasn’t going to ask! Smart man. Very smart man!
For lunch, we were having sandwiches so I ran out to the garden and found this.
Tomato from the Garden
I’ll take a sandwich with homemade bread and a home grown tomato any day . . doesn’t even matter to me what else you want to put on there. Homemade bread and a home grown tomato is enough for me.
Sliced Home Grown Tomato
Benita Pipes says
That bread looks really really good! I would love to have homemade bread but I would just sit and eat the whole loaf. How do you keep from weighing 500 lbs?
JudyL says
That seems to be the direction I’m headed.
Anne C. says
I once had a sourdough starter that was given to me by a neighbor. His name was Herman — the starter, not the neighbor. I enjoyed making delicious bread and rolls using my starter.because I had a gas stove with a pilot light, I kept Herman in my oven. Unfortunately, I murdered Herman when I turned on the oven and forgot to take Herman out. I grieved my loss. I thought about picking up a package of dried starter during a recent visit to War Eagle Mill in NW Arkansas, but I didn’t. Maybe next time.
Linda Steller says
Oh does that look good! I’m dreaming of the day when bread is back on my menu!
AngieG9 says
Okay, that does it. Now I know what I’ve been wanting to eat all day. I have everything I need to make the new starter, so all I have to do is get away from the computer and try to find my kitchen. After my squash relish fiasco on Friday I have been pretending it isn’t part of the apartment.