This is the time of year when I can look forward to baking again soon.  I don't bake much in the summer because it makes the house too hot, and I am limited to an itty bitty outdoor toaster oven.  Not so good for fussing over bread loaves.  So the cooler weather encouraged me to get a sourdough starter going, to be ready for the bread baking season to come.

Every few years I experiment with making a starter from scratch - catching the wild yeast and making it grow.  I have had some successes and some failures, but this time I have a very active culture.  Here is how I did it.

To make a sourdough mother, you need:

• Clean glass or enamel bowl
• Clean spoon
• Clean distowel
• 2 cups good quality white flour (I use King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour)
• 1 1/2 cups good water (I use well water, but you could use distilled water or purified bottled water - you don't want to use water that has been chlorinated, like what we call "city water."  If you wouldn't put it in your fishtank, don't put it in your starter.)
• a couple of cups more flour and water on hand to feed the starter for the first week

On Day 1, you will mix your 2 cups flour and 1 1/2 cups water in the bowl, with the spoon, and cover with the dishtowel.  Leave it out on the counter in the kitchen.  That is all.  Seems simple, but you have just laid a Cunning Trap for some wild yeast.  If there is any wild yeast floating around in your kitchen (and there probably is), it will begin to grow in your yeast trap, also known as your bread and water mixture.  It may take a couple of days to show itself, or you may get lucky, like I did this time, and you may get a yeast culture growing rapidly right away.  In the picture above, the "mother" (in sourdough circles we call it a "mother" and refer to it as a "her," now that you are making your own, you can do the same) is only 12 hours old, but you can see the bubbling that indicates the yeast is growing, feeding and respiring.  Those bubbles are what make your bread rise.

On Day 2, you will feed "her" 1/3 cup flour and 1/4 cup water.  As shown above, this is a simple process of dump and stir.  You won't get her perfectly smooth, just a few swipes with a clean spoon to incorporate the flour and water is good enough; the yeast will do the rest.  If you see a clear fluid on top of the mother when you check it, that is fine, just stir it back in when you feed her.  The fluid is alcohol which is a result of the metabolism of yeast (wine or beer, anyone?) and acts as a natural preservative for your starter and adds flavor to your bread.

On Day 3, do the same.  Keep on doing this until you have reached Day 7.  At this point, you should use or discard some of the starter, and refrigerate the mother in a glass container (I am using a mason jar).

**I decided to refrigerate my starter on Day 3, due to its very active nature and the fact that it was already getting very flavorful/sour.  Use your own judgement, these are guidelines, not rules!

IF you see any kind of mold or pinkish fluid on your starter - it is no good!  Throw it out at once!  The lovely trap of flour and water is desirable to many microorganisms, but the only one that we want to catch is the wild bread yeast.  You may unwittingly catch some other kind.  Just throw it out and try again with fresh and very clean bowl, spoon, and towel.

Wild Sourdough Starter Links

Here are some good resources for reading about making a starter from scratch, but I encourage you to go ahead and try it.  You can read and read about this kind of process, and look at various methods and ingredients, but in the end, you just have to try it for yourself.

My guidelines above are based on the instructions found at "Bread the Mary Jane Way."  I love how her site expresses the joy of making an elemental baking substance out of thin air, as it were!

My first experience with setting a Cunning Trap for the wild yeast living in my house came from the encouragement found in my dear old battered King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook.  They have quite a bit of that book online and here is the part about the starter.

There are very detailed instructions and lots of pictures here on the Wild Yeast Blog.

Soon I will tell you what to do with that starter once you have made it...

Tomatoes

Charentais melon or cantaloupe

Yard-long Asian green beans – purple and green OR red cabbage

Cherry Tomatoes ‘Black Cherry,’ ‘Gold Nugget’ etc.

Farm fresh eggs

Apple ’Granny Smith’

Bell Pepper, Jalapeno, Hungarian Wax Pepper (hot), and Cayenne

Potatoes

Cucumber

Onion

The following passage is attributed to the 17th century French poet Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant, in reference to the Chanterais Melon.  

This melon is firm to the centre, with few seeds like grains of gold*. It is better than the beloved apricot, better than strawberries and cream, better than the Holy pear of Tours or the sweet green fig. Even the muscat grape I love is bitterness and muck compared to this divine melon.
O sweet grassy snake ,crawling on a green bed. It is Apollo's masterpiece. The brothels of Rouen will be free of the pox... tobacco smokers will have white teeth... I will forget my love's favours before I forget you-
O fleur de tous les fruits! O ravisant MELON!

Must be a good melon!

Hot and Dry Growing Conditions

The garden is suffering. Too hot. Too dry. I still have (or can get) enough produce to fill my orders, but I am not adding any new subscribers – they are all going on a waiting list. I may be bumping some of you to a standby list soon. If any of you are willing to volunteer to go to this status, let me know. Sometimes “veggie fatigue” starts in and you would like to take a break – this is a good time, and that might allow someone to remain on the list who has a real need or desire to keep getting the veggie deliveries. Call 870-653-3062 or send me an email at georgiaberry@yahoo.com.

The supply of veggies that are available will be decreasing for a while due to heat and drought conditions. In 2010, we made the last summer veggie delivery on July 19. I can already see a slight reduction in produce at the farmer’s markets, and I am having more and more difficulty in keeping enough moisture on my plants in certain areas of the garden – irrigation just does not entirely replace rain!

We are also seeing dramatically increased pressure from wildlife over this last week – deer and rabbits have virtually wiped out my stand of Asian Long-beans. These animals are suffering in the drought and looking for something fresh and well-hydrated to eat.

We will keep it up as long as possible...just letting you know what the trends are...

Red Onions

Chard ‘Sunshine Mix’

Carrots

Blackberries!

Green Tomatoes

Cayenne and Hungarian Wax Pepper (hot)

Cilantro

Spring Garlic

Green Beans ‘Roma 2’

Herb Bouquet

Farm fresh eggs

Fresh from the Garden Green Tomato Salsa

A Sunshine For Dinner original recipe!

Perfect for a relaxed Memorial Day meal.

Green tomatoes – a couple

Garlic – plenty

Cilantro – a bit

Fresh peppers – how spicy do you like it?

Red onion – a few tablespoons

Lemon or lime juice – a few tablespoons till it tastes bright

Salt – to taste

Run it all through the food processor until coarsely blended, or chop it up with a knife and mix it in a bowl. Enjoy!

I think I put all you need in the bag – except the lemon or lime juice. What you really need here is an acid to balance the flavors, so if you need to, substitute some kind of light colored vinegar, no balsamic! The color will be very unappetizing!

Garlic: This is spring garlic – uncured, just freshly pulled from the soil. Very easy to peel, very delicious, and needs to be kept refrigerated. My garlic crop is not looking too good this year, but the taste of spring garlic makes up for the disappointment.

You could also make fried green tomatoes if the salsa is not for you!

Spring Onions

Chard ‘Sunshine Mix’

Carrots

Bok Choy

Radishes

New Potatoes

Spring Garlic

Herb Bouquet

Farm fresh eggs

Spring garlic:
Spring garlic is like the soft-shell crab stage of garlic.  The papery layers haven’t matured and cured yet into their customary dryness.  To enjoy this delicacy, just peel off the outer leathery layers and then chop up the entire head – no need for any more peeling!
Keep this garlic refrigerated, and use it up quick.  It is not for storing, it is for using!


Herb bouquet: 
What to do with this?  That is the question I ask myself each time I go in or out my front door, passing my overflowing herb garden!  
The best thing to do with it is drop it down into a small juice glass with water, and put it in your refrigerator.  Each time you open the door, the beautiful scent and appearance of the herbs will cheer and refresh you!
Pick them out of the bunch and use them as you like, when they wither, put them in the compost pile. 
Contents: parsley, rosemary, chives, sage, lavender blossom, lemon balm, dill 



Enjoy,
Georgiaberry