October 1, 2010 - 3:43pm
Colorado HELP!!
Hello! I have recently taken a trave assignment in Grand Junction Colorado and unbeknownst to me, my husband poured out the South Florida sourdough starters I had FINALLY gotten perfect after a year!! ANYWAY, the question is, being it is October 1st, is it too late to be able to start a wild sourdough starter here?? Should I set it out for the day outside on a picknick table or what. HELP!! I need guidance!!! We are going to be here at LEAST 3 months and I SO want to be able to bake our breads even though the Travel Trailer oven is tiny!!!
THANK YOU!
Jannrn
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Men who don't bake - they just don't understand, do they? I trust you explained the horror he committed, and that he now will suffer the consequences of not having tasty sourdough bread for a while? ;-)
You can start a sourdough culture any time. The wild yeast is primarily in the flour so you don't have place it on a table outdoors. Unless your trailer is really cold and it's warmer outdoors.
Just use the same technique as you did before, be patient, and you'll be up and baking SD again.
And hide it from your hubby when it's time to pack up and go home.
LindyD is correct - any time is a good time for a starter. (And my house sitter [a man] lives in fear of killing the starter - less than of killing the fish and more than the cat dying of natural causes [he is a very, very,very old cat.] But before leaving my starter in the care of anyone, I took a sample when it was nice and peaked and spread it on plastic wrap to dry. Once dried, you can crumble it up and use the dried flakes to create a new starter pretty quickly - good safety tip.)
We're having a very warm fall in Colorado - hope we don't pay for it with a brutal winter.
Just remember in Grand Junction you are working at a high altitude - things will be a "little" different than Florida. But I started my starter at a mile high (indoors)and it continues strong. Also bear in mind that things are dry out here - you'll have to be a bit more careful about letting starters and dough crust over (on the flip side, dough doesn't stick!)
I'd offer you some of my starter (I've always got plenty to spare), but you are clear across the state and that's a big deal out here.
Good Luck!
and getting a sourdough started quickly. Go with the unsweetened pineapple juice and the starter will be there soon enough!
In my last phone call with my husband, he told me in one quick sentence that a maid came in and cleaned up the apartment while he was working but not to worry, she pitched a lot of "foreign foods" from the refrigerator but my sourdough starter is safe. First thing he checked on. She might have been stopped by all my warning labels on the jar! Even if she couldn't understand my English, "!!!" goes a long way!
(Who knows? Maybe he rescued it from the trash...) :)
Try also using a tiny weensy bit of diastatic malt with WHOLE rye flour for starting the starter. It should be strong enough in a week to compete with that year old one. After 3-4 weeks, it should be fully mature.
Sources: The Great Raymond Calvel