A little while ago, I came across a book called “The Urban Homestead” by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen. It’s a hippie book about a hippie couple living in LA, who share all of their hippie gardening, cleaning, and energy tips. It’s not the most entertaining read, but it’s informative and I got inspired by one tip in particular. In the book, the hippies describe how you make a sourdough starter. I’ve always thought it would be fun, so I gave it a go. Here is the bulk of information to get started.
1. Get yourself a glass or ceramic container with a lid. It should be able to hold at least 3 to 4 cups of liquid. A quart sized mason jar works well. Don’t use a metal container. It’s ok to use metal utensils to stir your starter since they are only in contact with it for a few moments -not enough time to cause any damage.
2. Start with a white flour starter, however later you can convert it to whole wheat or rye. The reason to begin with the white flour is that both whole wheat and rye flours have a tendency to rot before the culture has an opportunity to develop.
3. To begin your white flour starter, mix one cup of white flour with one cup of lukewarm water in your glass or ceramic container and stir until smooth. Put in a warm place.I keep mine on the stove top to be warmed by the pilot light. Optimal temperatures are in the 70-80 degree range.
4. Every day, pour off one cup of your starter and add half a cup of flour and a half cup of lukewarm water to feed what remains. The most common mistake is neglecting to feed the starter every day. You need to feed your sourdough “mother” every day.
5. Your starter should begin to get bubbly in a few days. A layer of liquid, known a “hooch,” will form on top. Don’t be concerned, this is natural and simply stir it in every morning when you add the additional flour and water.
6. After 2 weeks, you should have a active culture of wild yeasts that you can bake bread with. You can now throw out all of those little packages of commercial yeast in your cupboard. Their day is over.
7. After a week or so has passed, instead of throwing out that cup of starter in the morning, use it to make a loaf of bread, The starter will get stronger as it gets older, but give it a try at about a week, certainly by two weeks. You can also use it to make sourdough pancakes (yummy!).
8. If you aren’t going to bake for a few days put the starter in the fridge, and feed it once a week. To revive it, take it out of the fridge and give it two or three days of feedings before you use it.
9. To create a whole wheat or rye starter first begin with a living white flour starter at least two weeks old. Instead of feeding it a half-cup of white flour and half-cup water, instead feed it a half cup of whole wheat or rye flour and a half cup of water. In a few days you will have “converted” your white flour starter to a whole wheat or rye starter. With both a whole wheat and rye starter it is especially important to feed the starter every day as these flours have a tendency to develop molds much more quickly than white flour starters.
Here is a pic of my supplies
This is after 1 week
It already smells quite sour and looks like a science experiment on my stove.
Sourdough Myths (according to book)
1. You should add grapes/potatoes/rice to the flour and water mixture to hasten the development of wild yeasts. Sorry folks, the wild yeasts are in the flour and you don’t need anything except flour and water to get your starter going. The wild yeasts on the skin of grapes are a different beast and not the kind that make bread rise.
2. You should add some commercial yeast to get it going. Wrong. Commercial yeast is another type of beast entirely. More, it does not survive the acidic bacterial stew that makes up a healthy starter culture.
3. You should mail order a sourdough starter to replicate a regional flavor. In all likelihood the the wild yeasts in the flour you use will eventually dominate any mail order cultures you purchase. Your starter will be local to wherever you live.
4. You have to use bottled water. (the hippies) We’ve made starters with plain old chlorinated LA tap water with no problems. If your water is heavily chlorinated and you’re having problems with your starter you can de-chlorinate your water by letting the water stand without a lid for 24 hours.
5. Wild yeasts are in the air and you need to “catch” them. Yes, there are yeasts in the air, but there are millions more in flour which, in all likelihood, is the origin of the beasts that will make your starter bubble.
Hopefully these tips will give you the inspiration it gave me to give the “mother starter” a try and start your very own experiment on the stove top. It’s fun, smelly, and kinda like being a kid. Give it a try and let me know how it goes, and how yor bread turns out 
