April 3, 2022 - 2:04pm
Hello
Just a quick introduction. I bake mostly Rye/Wheat breads, Banana Bread and occasionally a sweet bread or whole wheat. I pick wild mushrooms and make jelly from the berries in my back yard.
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Just a quick introduction. I bake mostly Rye/Wheat breads, Banana Bread and occasionally a sweet bread or whole wheat. I pick wild mushrooms and make jelly from the berries in my back yard.
Welcome to TFL !
Are you looking for fresh wet starter, that you can use immediately (or after one feeding)? Or are you looking for dried starter that you can re-hydrate and get going in about four days?
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There are usually several people here who would be willing to mail you some dried starter. But you'd need to change (edit) this post's title to something like "starter wanted, Milford PA" to get their attention.
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To get fresh/wet starter... I don't know if there are any TFL users in Milford. One idea I read about is to ask on Facebook or Nextdoor.com (if you are on those) to find sourdough bakers local to you.
Good luck!
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BTW, if you ever do want to start a starter from scratch, this post is the one people here most often refer to: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10901/pineapple-juice-solution-part-2
Thanks for the suggestion. I'm a short drive from NYC, and there are about 10 million people within a 40-minute drive of my home, so I figured the odds might be in my favor for some fresh starter.
I've made a fresh starter from home ground rye flour but find it much harder to get going this time of year than in the summer.
Not on any social networking sites. Not my thing.
I'll take your advice and repost. I bought a 50lb bag of first-clear flour for about the same price as a couple of 3 lb bags from KAF, so I've got plenty to spare ;0)
The Fresh Loaf is generally a kind and helpful place. The key here is to note that there is a rhythm to this place. You may need to wait for the "right person" to read and respond later in the week or on a weekend when they check in.
It's often helpful to hang back and wait for a variety of responses to bubble up over the week and then devote your attention to whichever of them meets your needs.
I have seen newcomers have starter challenges, and I have seen members offer starter to each other.
In the meantime, I hope you take a look at our blogs or use our search function and explore all the amazing stuff we have here. There are posts going back to 2005 or maybe earlier. I've learned a lot here,
Welcome!
I would send you one for free if I had a good SD starter to share. If you are gonna to acquire one then I think you would want one commercial grade, not just from anybody. I would check around large local supermarkets as most of them have a bakery that you can talk to about acquiring one, I bet some of them would give you a piece for free. Our local supermarkets have a very friendly meat depart where I have them cut up meat for me for free all the time, and I would expect a friendly bakery depart as well even though I have never had a need to talk to them. There is nothing wrong to acquire a SD starter, in fact, I have heard some of our sourdough experts here acquired SD starters from all over the world. Hope it will work out for you one way or another, good luck with that.
Thanks for the suggestions. I've made sourdough on and off for the last 12 years or so. Sometimes it would take a week, other times a month to get them started and healthy. Looking back it was kinda dumb not to dry or freeze some for those times I either stopped baking or went away.
I'm not against buying a starter, getting one from a store, or even making my own again I just had some spare first clear flour and thought it would be a fun trade for someone within an hour's drive.
I let my good starter die about ten years ago. The person who gave it to me was long gone (and very much missed). I replaced it with the free "Carl Griffith's 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter" from this website:
http://www.carlsfriends.net
You mail them a stamped, self-addressed envelope, and they mail you dried sourdough starter at no charge. You use it to get own sourdough starter going. It was easy. I have fed and used that same starter for years. The only issue is the delay between when you send them a stamped self-addressed envelope and when the dried starter arrives in the mail. It can take a few weeks.
To give you a balanced view, if you search The Fresh Loaf website, you will find that some members say that the sourdough starter from Carl's Friends is not as good as their favorite starters. I found others here who like it and use it. All I can say is that it has worked for me for ten years and yields good tasting sourdough bread. Keep in mind that I am new here with very little experience, so take any advice from me with a grain of salt. The other members know far more than me.
The bottom line is that Carl's Friends is another resource for you to consider if you want sourdough starter. I assume that others will find this thread through web searches.
Related: When the pandemic started in Spring 2020, several members of my family were caught short and had trouble finding commercial yeast. Everyone was sold out. I mailed dried sourdough starter to them and suggested that they bake with it to conserve their supply of commercial yeast. With sourdough starter, you have an unlimited supply of yeast. (Yeah, I happened to have an unopened 2 lb brick of active dry yeast [ADY] in the freezer, so I divided it up and mailed it along with the sourdough starter.)