Seed Culture

Here's a picture of the final phase of my seed culture. The seed culture is then converted to the "mother starter", which will then be kept in the refrigerator perpetually. From a portion of the mother starter I can then build the wild yeast starter. The wild yeast starter is then combined with either a soaker or a mash to make the final dough. To quote from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads, " A wild yeast starter (also known as a sourdough starter) is the golden child of bread making."

So, essentially, this picture shows the birth of my golden child. Isn't she precious? ha. Again, not the finest quality photograph. The dark spots you see in the culture are air pockets. She is an active baby. This will be ready to convert into the mother starter in 4 - 24 hours (hopefully) after the last feeding.

Peter Reinhart calls this method "The Pineapple Juice Solution". The first couple of mixings are whole wheat flour, unsweetened pineapple juice, and diastatic malt powder. Pineapple juice is used in part because it prevents leuconostoc bacteria (lactic acid bacteria). Wikipedia says this is the bacteria that causes the "stink" in a sourdough starter. Although this is not the only way to do it, Peter Reinhart asks "why tamper with success?".

Since sourdough's are unique to their area (it is made from the specific bacteria common to whereever you make it), maybe I'll start this over again when I get down to the Natural Life Cafe - - - then they can say that bread is truly their own sourdough. I think that's kind of neat.