What you need to know:
Sourdough is bread like you used to get. It’s the way bread was always made, right up until the Industrial Revolution. In a sourdough culture, wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria work together to ferment the sugars and starches in your flour into simpler things like carbon dioxide, among others, which over time develop flavour, texture and help bread rise.
To keep your starter happy we recommend naming it–it’s hard to ignore a friend. We recommend feeding it our Red Fife Whole Grain flour as that's what he lives on now. If you want to switch over to something else, do it slowly!
NOTE: For local pick-up and home delivery only. If ordered for shipping, it will be substituted with a dehydrated starter
Maintaining your starter
At room temperature:
Feed starter every 12 hrs, once in the morning, once at night.
Discard all but 25g of starter each time you feed.
Add equal weights flour (50g) and water (50g) to your 25g starter for a 1:2:2 ratio of starter to flour and water (texture should be that of a very thick batter, not
too stiff or runny).
In the fridge:
Follow above feeding guidelines (1:2:2 ratio), only feeding it once every 5-7 days.
The day before baking, remove from fridge and feed once in the morning, and once in the evening.
Starter should be ready to use 6-12 hours after its last feeding. It should appear bubbly (equally dispersed throughout) and spongy, and a small amount should float when dropped in water. You're looking for a slightly domed top that hasn't already risen and fallen.
