My adventures continue with starter. September is here, and I’m super excited to get the starter going again. Not sure if I said, but a fruit fly got into my starter from the beginning of the month and I had to toss it all. I was not pleased. Nothing I dislike more is wasted effort and resources. Not that I’m frugal but I like things to be streamlined and efficient.

I also had a small amount of white flour left over from the spring when there was a big rush on buying flour. The only thing left was white flour so that is what we got. I began this starter knowing and hoping that my white flour would be finished and I could switch over to whole wheat.

Day 4 was the last day I had white flour. Looks good right?

And the side view:

Looks good right? Things are happening. The starter has even raised a little. Pretty impressive for just day 4. I added sprouted whole wheat to the starter thinking, oh good, the higher protein content will really kickstarter (ha!) and day 5 will be amazing.

Yeah, no.

Day six there was no action in the starter. It is like I killed it. I switched it over to just plain old whole wheat rather than sprouted wheat. I did the regular stuff, lukewarm water, 50/50/50. My measurements were accurate now that I know how to measure and use the scale. Nothing. Nada. Starter was sleeping. Okay, so Day seven comes, today, and lo and behold!

I even did a float test and the starter floated! holy crap. Okay, I guess that means that I’ll be able to bake tomorrow. I’m so excited I can’t even say. I bought a new cast iron dutch oven and some bannetons so I’m excited to use those. Here are the ones I have, thank goodness for amazon prime.

The starter is a living thing. It has good days and bad days. Creating a colony for bread, to sustain you, is very much like an artwork. Art sustains us. It creates another world, another existence. In the act of creation, it may feel like I am going nowhere and if I give up, that is truly where I’ll be. Nowhere. But, I know from experience that the hardest part is right before the brush can be set down, or the tools can be put away. It’s encouraging to get to that point. It means I’m almost there.