I know this thread is very old, but it's one of the only really relevant links to come up when you google this. After never finding a satisfactory answer, I just tried it in my indoor plastic tote worm bin (made from 2 nested 10 gallon totes from Lowes http://www.lowes.com/pd_332449-61896-332449_1z0yly3__?productId=3276019&pl=1), and the worms adore sourdough starter. At first I thought something was wrong because every worm in the bin ended up in a giant, writhing mass where the starter was put down, but it turns out they were just super excited to eat it. It gets kind of hot, though, so be careful with quantity if the temp where you keep your worms is high. You'll see more condensation in the bin with the starter in there. I've put down up to 1/4 cup with no bad consequences to my bin. I don't know about larger quantities--I would guess it depends on the size of your bin and worm population. I had no problems with odor generally, but there can be a funk for a while if you uncover just the area where the starter is--probably because it can cause a wet, sludgy spot. I've since started to take out some older bedding and mix it into the starter before putting it down. The worms seem to prefer to eat the castings/organic matter/bedding that has soaked up the starter rather than eat the starter itself anyway, and it helps me control moisture better. If I notice that the spot with the starter is getting compacted and funky, I fluff it, and it seems to nip the problem in the bud. Anyway, I'm sure this is no help to the original poster anymore, but maybe this will help the next person who Googles for the answer to whether it's OK to feed sourdough starter to the worm bin.

hello all : Been looking at this page for a while - and was inspired to try something I read - a wild yeast captured from Caraway seeds. After 5 days and a few additions of my own - think I have a live sponge - Started with soaking FRONTIERS ORGANIC Caraway seeds ( I read this - dont remember what site - said organic would be sun dried as to heat dried) in some water in jar - dash of flour - not really sure why next morning drained seeds , added 1/2 of flour closed cap of jar and shook to mix - within 1 hr I had froth - next day still frothy - so put into bigger jar and added 1/2 flour and water - shook to mix - cracked lid for outgas - very frothy and smelled like fermentation next day less froth strong fermentation smell - so added some apple cider vinegar from a dropper I was cleaning out - secured cap and shook - cracked lid for outgas - next day, little movement but lots of hooch and strong fermentation smell - so I added more vinegar , did the mixing etc... this morning I was making bread with yeast - decided to play with the concoction - used up organic fruit juice sweetened apricot fruit jam jar took 1/2 of the mix I started - just shook that to mix and cracked the lid - could smell a touch of vinegar in the mix - the main jar I just added some home stone ground white winter wheat flour - maybe 2 tablespoons and mixed with wooded spatula I mixed the yeast dough I had started last nite -now thick like pancake batter - just checked it a moment ago and appears to be live and starting to bubble I shall report back tomorrow with more result - thought those might be interested in my experiment cheers:

I have always had both refrigerated and dried. I make the starter batch, and spread a little onto some plastic wrap. Its allowed to air dry for about 2 days. By then it crumbles easily. I simply place in a small plastic bag and its fine for almost forever, if stored in the fridge. You MUST create the starter from just water, flour, and the orignal sourdough culture. Do not add salt, sugar or anything else to the culture!! Every time I make a batch of sourdough, I mix my jarred, refrigerated one with flour and water to give me a stiff batter, almost a sticky dough, as well as adding a little of the dried. I keep the dried ones in the fridge too. I have several, one for rye, one, my grandfather used 100 years ago, and one with a more recent (30+ year old) sourdough culture from San Francisco. All three are viable and will start 'working' within 4 hours. The water I use has no chlorine, so bottled might help prolong the cultures. I do have a new one pound bag of regular yeast, and its compressed and granulated. I store it in the freezer, unopened. Once it is opened, it goes into a canning jar with air tight lid, then back into the freezer again. Everything mentioned in the King Arthur descriptive above is exactly what I do. I don't mind smelling top of the starter liquid in the fridge, as its 'hooch' (booze) like another person mentioned. There is also another recent post I made that covers the same issues of keeping a sourdough culture alive and well. I don't even bother to feed mine, and it could be sitting in the fridge 6+ months at a time, with no ill effects.

digdirt and jimster thanks for the links , good reading. ksrogers thats a nice story as i always enjoy reading the family ones, on the other forum i have been going to for little over 3 years now we discuss fig tree and there fruit another passion of mine and the family history of the tree's are great to read as well so thanks for shareing that. My granfather in Italy was a baker by trade my father used to tell me but i never met him nor grandmother as they passed when i was small. The cast iron pan gets a ring of slight rust after it cools around inside rim which i scrub with water and then rub in some oil and heat on stove till i use it next ,it is cumbersome and this one pan is just for the bread , when i preheat oven with it i dont get any smoke which is good. I just have to keep at it or it would rust thats for sure, but your right stainless would be much much better. Today i baked a loaf of bread with some starter that i had bought last year, i tried a basket i have with one of those towels in it floured nice, so i made the dough wetter i usually freeform my loaves, i figured since in a basket i could get away with a wetter dough. I had a stone but it cracked on me last year so i use a preheated cookie sheet, i took cookie sheet out of hot oven and placed over the basket i know what your thinking burn towel and basket well that did not happen but the dough flattend out more or less at this point i slashed top and put in oven, now the funny part, my turkey roaster i was going to use i thought well if the dough rises to much it will mess things up so i used tall aluminum stock pot to cover the dough to see what would happen. After about 4 to 5 minutes i pulled rack out of oven and lifted pot up and the dough would have stuck to it as it kept on spreading. So i left top off of dough and misted it and sides of oven, the bread tasted good with slight sour taste this evening with spaghettis and the works but it looked awfull , the crum had nice holes though oh well. I have what they call chicago mettalic pan with a bunch of little holes in it if anyone is familar with it you know what it looks like, trouble is the bread crust pokes thru them iv'e tried several ways, first time for proofing in them (big mess) second time proofing loafs elswhere then baking in them another mistake as they crust still went into the wholes and made it hard to clean. Then i used parchment paper until crust formed enough not to poke thru the holes which is what i do now when i use this , basically im not crazy about it. So im going to try the basket again it seems like it works well and is the right size for the pound and a half bread i make and comes out easy for me i just need to not make the dough as wet, and i should get a bakers peel as well instead of fooling around with a hot cookie sheet like i did today, in the meen time i think i will freeform the loaves till i get the bakers peel 1 day.The starter i bought off ebay seems slow to activate but its getting there, the other one i experimented with is so far going real well as there are many more bubbles now than yesterday , today im dumpind all but a cup and then just adding cup of flour and about cup of water it seems to react faster than the other ones i have dealt with in the past and present so im anxious to try this one, it did have an off odor at first but now it seems to be ok , im going to keep feeding it for a good week and then bake and see what the results are. Sorry for long post but i tried to put what i as thinking all in one post instead of creating several different ones, any comments are always welcome. Martin