All these posters have given you good advice and I agree with drying some of the starter in case you happen to lose your "mother" starter. I dry starter every six months or so just so I will always have some put back. Disclaimer: I am not an authority on sourdough, I only advise bakers according to my own experience. And I am sure that other sourdough bakers posting here are giving advice on what they have learned through research and their own experience. But this is what I think can be confusing for newbie sourdough bakers; there is so much information out there on the internet and in books that it can get very confusing. I recommend that newbies follow a single method of activating, feeding, and baking to see if that method works for them. Keep it simple, sweetie! I just don't want anyone to get discouraged by so much conflicting information. Off and on for years I tried to start my own sourdough and it never worked well for me except for my mom's potato flake batter bread recipe that starts with yeast not the wild beasties. Then several years ago I sent off for a proven strain, Carl Griffith's 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter and finally I had success. I now have Sourdough Jack's starter also and I made a whole wheat starter using pineapple juice successfully - so...don't give up! Teresa

Oops, posted to the wrong Forum...moving to Cooking.

Don't know how you are "feeding" but following the guidelines will promote success. You must always discard some starter before feeding it. (Starters are relatively high-maintenance "pets.") For more info, you might try a general search "how to make starter for bread" -- but no quote marks. Or you could go to the Cooking Forum with your questions. Another way to find out is to search "starter from grape leaves" -- but without the quotes. Can also try a related search "starter from grapes" In any case, it will take longer than several days to develop a lively culture. In the meantime, you can begin your starter with grape leaves but must ensure no pesticides used on the plant. Here is a link that might be useful: Cooking Forum This post was edited by jean001a on Mon, Jan 26, 15 at 14:31

I'm sure your starter is fine, but I think you'll find that after a year it'll be that much finer, especially if you stress it occasionally (let it go a little too long between feedings) to thin the herd. :) My own journey is a big old muddle of learning wild yeast (sourdough starter) and whole wheat at the same time, combined with water restrictions that made me look for ever less cleanup. Whole wheat actually requires at least eight hours of soak (in the liquid of the recipe) or rise, to fully hydrate, along with some acid to reduce the anti-nutrients. Along the way, I experimented with a number of traditional recipes, some white or with a large enough percentage of white to handle the same as white, many of which I documented in this forum (search on 'sourdough"). What worked for me was making a preferment (i.e., biga or levain--The Kitchn says "leaven") in the evening, and baking in the morning. I can't remember the timing well, because I have a bad relationship with mornings. There are some hours involved for the dough to rise. It only rises as fast as commercial yeast when you're counting on it not to! My best advice is twofold: One, get in the habit of baking bread so that it becomes part of your rhythm, and you'll have it ready before your chicks turn up hungry. The other is just to try some recipes and learn what it is you all like best. There may be one that does it for your daily bread, or a base dough that you can make up differently as in the 5 minutes method, or it may be a rotation of different flavors and textures. While learning one at a time seems wise, there's also something to be said from learning a bit from each thing you try and bringing the total learning back around when you try them again. Nine people, minimum, if I got that right, is plenty to be experimenting on, and should give you plenty of scope for learning what you're doing. So, do you want sour or just good bread with wild yeast? Sour takes some time to work, remember the rule of less starter = more sour taste requires longer rise. If you have your starter on the counter and feed it every day (maybe twice a day while it's young), you'll be ready to bake a lot sooner. I don't quite agree with some of what is said at The Kitchn about starter. It is an acidic environment (not "likes" one). It's also not finicky once established. While it's young, you have a number of organisms fighting for supremacy. The yeast will win, and as it strengthens, it'll do away with new organisms introduced in feedings without any protest. Once it's established, it's very hard to completely kill. Just feed it up and it'll start burping again. I'll also mention, that no matter the original source, all wild yeast in starter is the same kind. The whole location thing is silly. "San Francisco" sourdough is the name used for really really sour. That's about how hungry the yeast is, not the location (French fries aren't from France, either, though, I believe they got their name because frying was in vogue in France at that time, just as really sour bread was commonly made in San Francisco, and they did up beans mighty fine in Boston). Rather than getting too wrapped up in how long the process is going to take, it's best to just go with what you know and work it into your life. Eventually, you'll be able to adjust the timing. Like maybe you know if you set your dough to rise at noon, it'll be ready to bake after the school run, and before dinner. Or that if you make your levain after breakfast, you can mix the dough up after dinner, and bake after breakfast the following day. Also, have some interim breads, either quick to produce commercial yeast breads, or bisquits, waffles, cornbread, or whatever it is you can fill in with if your bread just isn't ready yet, while you're learning. You'll get there.