I am new to making bread, and have made a number of loaves using King Arthur bread flour, salt, water and a sourdough starter. The bread tastes great, but when I toast it I am never able to get the crumb to turn brown and crispy, no matter how long I toast it for. What could be going wrong? (The toaster works fine by the way...)

We are bombarded on all sides with advertising for all kinds of kitchen gadgets and gear, but the toaster seems to have fallen by the wayside in more ways than one.  Most toasters that we've had in the past 10 years have been, well, how to put this nicely...not very satisfying.  In fact they've been downright disasters.  Not a one has lasted more than a year.  We enjoy our toast, and this is not good.