Despite the fact that our bread instructor at SFBI told us not to forget our sourdough starters in the chiller when the 2-week class series ended, I left my sourdough starter in the chiller. That was about 7 years ago.
Last weekend in one of those -I need to do this random thing that occurred to me right now- moments, I decided to get a sourdough starter going to replace the one I left at the school.
I made 2 starters - whole wheat and rye.
Day 1 (whole wheat)
Day 6 (whole wheat)
One week later
whole wheat
rye
They really do have their own personalities. The whole wheat took off immediately, doing its thing and eating me out of house and home and unbleached white flour. The rye started very slowly. At one point I thought it was dead, but on day 6 it sprung to life and now appears to be slightly more active than its whole wheat partner. They're both very healthy and smell like sourdough, which makes me really happy because I have a backup in case one of them goes in the crapper.
At this point, I'm just maintaining them at room temperature with twice-a-day feedings, and I'll keep doing this for another week, at which point they'll go in the fridge for long-term storage.
