So, you got yourself some starter. Now what?

A little about the mother starter: BERTHA

Bertha enjoys a life of luxury, living on my warm kitchen counter top in a small jelly jar. She is a robust starter that never lets me down! Now that you have a piece of her, she is no longer my “Bertha”, but yours to name and nurture!

On this page, you will learn all about how I maintain Bertha, what she likes and what she doesn’t like.

As you get to know your starter, you will learn what she likes or doesn’t like in your environment, too. Use this as a guideline for feeding while you learn and enjoy your sourdough journey!

Sourdough culture is a living ecosystem of microorganisms, primarily wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria. It's created by combining flour and water and allowing them to ferment naturally.

• Wild Yeasts: These are naturally occurring yeasts found in the environment, on flour, and even in the air. They are responsible for the rising of the dough, creating air pockets that give sourdough bread its characteristic lightness and texture.
• Lactic Acid Bacteria: These bacteria produce lactic acid during fermentation, which gives sourdough its tangy flavor.

Because your starter is an active, living organism, you will need to feed it to ensure it stays active and healthy. Starter is fed with a bit of active starter (filled with wild yeast to feed), all purpose flour and filtered water.

Maintenance Feeding: 1 tablespoon starter, 1/4 flour, 1/4 cup filtered (chlorine free) water. This will yield a small amount, perfect for when you are not baking.

After feeding, you will notice your starter is thick, like pancake batter, and there are no bubbles. Use an expo marker or rubber band  to mark where your starter line is at feeding.

As the hours pass, you will see your starter rise. It will get very bubbly, jiggle and will have doubled or tripled in size. The top is no longer domed, but will start to flatten out. This is “peak” and the most ideal time to bake with or to feed again.

Feeding “peak to peak” keeps the yeast in your starter strong. When your starter is peaked, you will notice lots of bubbles, she will jiggle and the top will no longer be domed. This is when the yeast in your starter is at its strongest . After the peak, your starter will fall and become more acidic. The higher the acid in your starter, the lower the volume of yeast actually becomes. Feeding “peak to peak” allows for your starter to have a high concentration of yeast to start, and builds more yeast as it eats through the feeding.

Missed the window peak? No worries! Feed her anyways and watch her bubble!

Because you only need about a tablespoon of starter for each feeding, you will be left with starter you don’t need. Pour your discard into a mason jar and put it in the fridge. Every time you feed, add your discard to the same jar. There are so many recipes you can use discard in that will give you the same health benefits of traditional sourdough.

Bonus! If something happens to your starter and she is no longer usable, you can pull a bit from our discard jar, feed her a few times and now you have a fresh jar of starter!

You will notice that your starter is reactive to its environment. The colder it is, the slower she is to eat through the feeding to reach peak. The warmer that it is, the quicker she will eat through it and the more often she will need feeding.

• Letting your starter go too long between feedings increases the lactic acid in it, decreasing the yeast concentration. If too much time passes (typically 48 hours for Bertha), the yeast will be consumed by the acid and it will “die”.
• Leaving your starter on a hot stove top, inside your oven when on, or at high temps for too long will cook your starter much like bread bakes.