Hi! I started yesterday and I did use all purpose flour as it was all I had and I was anxious to try. I already had bubbles today!

Hi Emily! I really recommend starting with whole wheat flour, it feeds the starter with more diverse microorganisms. You could potentially start with all purpose flour, but it may take a little bit longer to get established. I just cover my starter with a small piece of plastic wrap on the top. You don’t want to use a solid screw on top lid. I hope you love your adventure in sourdough! 🙂

If your starter isn’t strong enough the texture and rise of your bread won’t be what it should be. You can start to use that discard once your starter is established. 🙂

Hi Lisa! The feeding process grows the yeast itself. You don’t add any yeast. 🙂

Did I miss how much yeast to add to the starter? All I see is feeding instructions. Please advise.
Thank you for your time.

Hi Penelope! I cover mine with a piece of cling wrap. You won’t want to use a solid lid on it. 🙂

Did you put a solid lid on it? When I read the “maintaining your sourdough starter” article, I saw that you’re not supposed to use a solid lid. (I didn’t see that info in this article.)

I waited almost two weeks on mine & haven’t made bread yet (because I still had sourdough that I’d bought), but I’ve made crackers & a couple kinds of cookies with the discard. Sammy is very happy. He’s in the fridge this week while I’m away. 😊

Thank you so much for your support, Mel! 🙂

Mine is doing the same thing! I am on day 2 and just came back to look to see if I missed anything. A few hours after I fed it it’s already doubled in size. I too did whole wheat flour and ~95 degree F water.

Oh I plan to go to at least day 8. I was worried I had done something to ruin it before it even started.

Things I may have messed up:
• I read the sourdough starter maintenance article & realised I was using the wrong cover. I can’t find, in this article, where it says not to use a solid cover. So I was using plastic screw-on lids.
• I had made some yogurt & strained it, and wanted to use the whey in the starter. I put it in a mason jar with a plastic lid & failed to put it in the fridge overnight. I used it anyway. I collected new whey yesterday & it smells about the same as the one that sat out.
• I forgot I was supposed to switch to different flour on the first feeding of day 5, so I used whole wheat in the morning & (whatever type of flour “Bebe Agua” is, as that’s what’s available here) in the evening.
• My timing isn’t great. I started at 9, then 10, then 11… then last night I had to move it up to 8:30 so I could go to bed before midnight. I did get pretty close today – 9:00. 🤦‍♀️

Despite all this, Sam (née Charlie but then I realised that’s my neighbour’s name) still doubles daily. (I use masking tape to mark the top of the starter, and it always grows above the masking tape — which is about as wide as the space between the tape itself & the bottom of the jar.) And there are always circular hollow spaces in the starter, which I assume is what you mean by “bubbly”. I’ve only had a small amount of liquid once, when I was still using the plastic lid. The smell is mild & pleasant. So I think he’s coming along nicely despite my mistakes. 🤞

If you use a starter that’s not strong enough, what happens? Is it poison? Does the bread just not rise? Something in between?

Also, did I miss where it says *when* you can start using the discard in other recipes?

Thank you!!

Hi Penelope! I haven’t experienced it growing that much. It will sometimes be a little more robust in the beginning, but it will slow down. It’s not quite ready to use at day 2. Keep going. 🙂

It will overflow your container pretty quickly.

Thank you, Susy! I’m glad it was clear and easy to follow. I hope you love all of your sourdough goodies. 🙂

I have made this recipe and at first I found it very overwhelming because of the process itself but as the days went by, I started to really enjoyed it specially when I noticed it was working and growing quite well. I thank you for your steps by steps directions, my starter raised quite well. I appreciate your time spent on this recipe. Worked really nicely!

Hi Bev! I haven’t personally done it, but it could work. 🙂

Interesting. Let me know how it goes! 🙂

I’m in Canada and there’s a well known market in Toronto that is known for sourdough bread. They also make and sell freeze dried sourdough starter. There website is where I got the information..re: freezing sourdough starter. Apparently they do it all the time. I guess I’ll have to try and see if it fails. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Hi June! You will need your starter to be at room temperature for most uses. I don’t know how freezing it will go. I haven’t ever tried doing that. I do have an article on how to care for your sourdough starter that I just published that could be helpful. 🙂