In the beginning...

Many years ago, I maintained a sourdough starter that I started with commercial yeast.  I used it for making bread, pancakes, English muffins, and maybe a few other things that I don't remember.  During a household move, it turned rather nasty, and the other person involved in the move objected to the smell.  Around the same time, bread machines came on the market.  With longer rise times needed for sourdough than the machines provided, I decided to abandon my starter and take the lazy man's approach to bread making using the machine.

Recently, I found a book dedicated to baking sourdough bread with a bread machine.
Worldwide Sourdoughs from Your Bread Machine

So, I decided to give it another try.  One of the authors of this book was quite a purist about not using commercial yeast, even to get your starter started.  I looked into a few retail sources for starter (some listed in the book), but decided to try growing one from the wild.

I had heard that it was possible to capture wild yeast that just happened to be floating around in your environment, but was a little skeptical.  Still, what did I have to lose?  I found this great blog from King Arthur Flour and followed along--still skeptical.

Monday Evening

I used King Arthur whole wheat flour that I happened to have in the house, already.  The instructions suggested pumpernickel or whole wheat, because it tended to have more wild yeast in it, or something like that.  I measured out the ingredients and set it in a relatively warm part of the house--in the basement, near the furnace.  It's about 74F there.

Tuesday Evening

Well, to my surprise, my solution of nothing but whole wheat flour and water had doubled in size! King Arthur's blog had me expecting less after just one day.  Now, I'm excited. I followed the feeding instructions (except using King Arthur white bread flour, rather than all-purpose flour) and waited another 24 hours.

Wednesday Evening

Still looking good.  With all of this yeast activity, I decide that it is time to start the twice-daily feedings as detailed in the King Arthur blog. 

I've also decided to try to keep the temperature a little steadier by keeping the starter in an otherwise empty Styrofoam box.

Thursday and Friday

I continue with the twice-daily feedings.  Activity seems to have slowed down, considerably.  At the time for each feeding, there is evidence of bubbles in the culture, but not much growth.  The red arrow is where the culture started at the beginning of the feeding cycle.

There does seem to be a layer of alcohol on top, and the culture definitely smells sour.

Friday

I decided to try to promote the growth by putting the culture in the Styrofoam box on top of the furnace. That was probably a bad idea.  When I went to get the culture on Saturday morning, the temperature inside the box was 104F--probably too warm.  I hope I haven't killed anything.

Well, nuts! I was hoping to use this to bake some bread this weekend, but I don't think it's active enough.

Next: It's alive!