many questions about starter
Since I live near San Francisco (I'm on a small island right across the SF bay) I figure I should be able to get some local wild yeast going. But here are some questions I'm having:
Will any starter eventually pickup the local yeast and become local? I mean if I work with Carl's starter will it eventually become San Francisco starter? or will the original Carl's organisms always prevail over the local wild yeasts?
The wheat I'm grinding is from Montana (Prairie Gold from Wheat Montana) --- are the wild yeasts in the wheat? (is it Montana sourdough I'd be starting from scratch?) Or are the wild yeasts in the air, where I live, and get on the wheat?
I usually grind my wheat immediately before I start making bread (or feeding my starter) - would I get more local yeasts if I ground the wheat and left the flour in an open bowl for hours/days?
Or should I just send off for some San Francisco starter?
I've had a few starters going - experimenting with feeding one just bran and water, or flour and water, or flour and flat beer, wetter/drier ... just to see if I could learn anything. They are all similar but a little different from each other. The last couple of days instead of putting a loose fitting lid on top, I've been putting a wet paper towel over the lid and I think those have worked much better.
Thanks for all the great advice I've been getting here!
OH ... another question. Sunlight! Should I be putting my starter in a dark place? I've just been growing it out on the counter but my kitchen has lots of windows and sunlight.
Most of the yeast is on the grain. The more organic and whole the flour, the better but it's not a rule chiseled in stone. Cover the starter culture while developing, loosely to keep out bugs and prevent drying out. Avoid the sun if it heats up the starter too much.
If starting up a particular culture, better to use plain sifted flour, even bleached so that the competition with rehydrating the starter is kept to a minimum. With a wild starter, the more bacteria and yeast (in whole flours) to fight among themselves, the better.
You are over thinking this but ya gotta do something during the looooong wait. :)
I'm on Alameda and maybe "Island" is used optimistically ... it is surrounded by water, but I could easily swim to Oakland - I could almost skip a flat rock across the channel to Oakland - and I can see San Francisco across the bay.
OK ... so if I were to buy a particular culture (say from Finland), I should feed it white flour so it doesn't have to compete with the wild cultures.
The original starter (what got me on this experiment a week or two ago) was the Carl's Oregon Trail starter that was given to me. I didn't really like it much, it smelled a bit like sweaty socks and didn't have any sourdough tang to it. But I took a small bit of it and have been feeding it fresh ground wheat for a week or so and it's starting to get a sourdough smell that I like. I thought it was just the Carl's yeasts on a different diet - but do you think I've populated it with different yeasts from the wheat? If so, that's a good thing.
it into a laboratory. (that would also change it into a "dragon culture") (haha) Rreminds me of Dragon Milk... ? where does Dragon Milk come from? Where else? Short legged cows!
Anyway, yes with the Suomi culture. About Oregon culture, if the culture got a weak start, it might be susceptible to change. Usually established starters if given the chance and not too badly abused stay on course. I find more sweaty sock smell with whole wheat starters as opposed to white wheat flour fed cultures. Could just be a slight variation in bacteria burping. Or... less bacteria strains. Not sure, don't quote me on it. Young whole wheat starters often head in this direction.
Sweaty sock smelling cultures work just fine but can lead to a short life. My sister didn't like hers and she didn't have much patience to work thru it and.... she put it out of her misery.
I've got a new wild starter growing at the moment and it too is trying to test my sensibilities. Little does it know with whom it's dealing. Just get started with it and learn first hand. Feed and have fun. Any Carb will do.
I probably should be in Alcatraz...lol
You are really overthinking this whole starter bit. I befriended a baker in San Fran. and got my starter from him. It lasted me for quite a few years. Now I have a New Mexican starter. What I have found makes the biggest difference is the grain I use. I have begun using Einkorn Berries from Italy so now I have an Italian starter I guess.
What I find is more important than anything is how you treat your starter and how many times you feed it when it is just beginning. The yeast and bacteria on the grain will eventually give way to your local organisms. I also use a combination of flours I grind myself . Half white and half Whole Wheat Graham. I have found this to make the best starters. I rarely use a stater that isn't at least 5 or 6 months old. This way I am assured of where the organisms are from.
Of course you could always buy a San Francisco sourdough starter until you are sure that many months of feeding, and the starter breathing that great ocean air, can be called "San Franciscan" Good luck.