The Care and Feeding of a Wild Yeast (sourdough) Starter

Melissa Blankenship’s Frontier Starter

12 October, 1853

“I rose before dawn and baked the loves that had been rinsing during the night.  Have a bit of a back ache.  Set to rise more loaves, fed the stock and finished the morning chores and we were on our way with the rising sun.  When we stopped at noon I baked the risen loves and set more to rise.    After watering the stock in the

we were on our way again.  Now tht we are in the high country there is always good water.  Back ache increasing and I told Bert I would have to ride some of he way now.  At evening we made camp by the large lake we had seen for most of the afternoon.  Baked the bread, set more loaves to rise for breakfast, finished the evening chores and was delivered of a son.  Bert says he hefted more than a 10 pound weight.  He is a Californian, born our first day in this new land.”

That was my Great Grandmother, Melissa Blankenship who immigrated to California from Virginia in 1653.  The above is an entry in the journal that she kept of the trip.  The original now lives in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.  One should keep in mind that the image of people riding in the wagons as they crossed the country is quite misleading.  You didn’t ride, you walked.  If you rode the extra weight would wear out your stock.  The wagon was to haul the goods you were going to need when you arrived at your destination.  So, Melissa Walked almost 3,000 miles from Virginia to California, and remember, she was pregnant.  Not only that, when she was a girl she contracted polio, so, from the time she was fourteen, her left leg was in a brace from her ankle to her hip. 

After arriving in California she went on to help her husband found a large commercial cattle ranch in the San Joaquin Valley and produce five large children. One day, on the stage coach between Tulare and Visalia she even encountered Black Bart.  She was so formidable that he did not take the little gold watch her husband had given her when her last child was born.  I still have it.

So, as you might figure, I don’t give much credence to: “Oh, I’m so tired,” “I’m having a bad day,” or “PMS.”  Sometimes life is tedious.  Get on with it.

Wild Yeast, (sourdough) verses Commercial Yeast:

We are surrounded by yeast cells.  The float in the air and are omnipresent. The only difference between so called “wild yeast,” or “sourdough” and the yeast you  buy at the grocers is that you took a chair and a whip and went out and captured it yourself, then brought it home and tamed it a bit.  When you buy commercial yeast, just like when you buy an animal from the pet store, it has already been caught and trained.

A word about Wild Yeast or Sourdough

This will not make San Francisco Sour Dough bread.  That is a unique creature that has  baffled scientists for generations.  What you will be able to make are excellent frontier breads, buns, biscuits, pancakes and waffles but do not expect a sourdough baguette.  For one thing, you don’t have the right oven.

But onwards: I bake my familie’s bread weekly from that starter and gladly give a start to anyone who wishes.

For those of you who have ever been given a cup of Melissa’s starter, the following is how to make it go forth and prosper:

Place the starter you received in a bowl and add 3 cups of flour and three cups of tepid water.  Stir well with a wire whisk.  Add ¼ cup of sugar and whisk again.  Set aside in a warmish place and cover with a piece of cheese cloth or netting.  Covering the bowl will keep flying vermin out.  Also, since it is yeast, cats adore it.  The netting or cheese cloth is to allow the wild yeast in the air to fall

into the bowl.  If you coverit with plastic or a solid cloth the wild yeast can’t get in and the starter won’t develop as well, if at all.

When the starter is “working,”  sort of bubbly and frothy and has a pleasant sourish aroma, put it in whatever container you are going to keep it in.  It should be glass, plastic or ceramic.  Just a quart Mason jar is fine.  I have a nice little ceramal crock with a wire bale lid.

You should try to use your starter at least once a week to keep it healthy.  If you can’t use it, you can still keep it happy.  Once a week discard half of it, stir in one cup of flour and one cup of tepid water, stir well and leave sit unrefrigerated for two or three hours, then put it back in the fridge.

Do not introduce eggs, fat of any sort or salt into the starter.  If you want those things in your bread, add them to the sponge, but only after you have removed your starter from the bowl.

Starting From Scratch:

For those can’t come to me to get a start, not to worry.  You can easily make your own.  Put two cups of flour and two cups of tepid water in a bowl mix well and cover with cheese cloth or netting.  Allow to sit in a warmis, even temperatured place until it becomes frothy and spongy.  This will take from about 2 days to sometimes as much as a week.  Then put it in whatever vessel you are going to store it in and refrigerate it. 

If by the end of a week it isn’t happening, chuck it an begin again.  Sometimes the yeast cells in the air won’t cooperate.  If you have recently sprayed with something caustic, like insect spray, bug repellent or air freshener, or if you have one of those pest strips hanging, the yeast cell count in your environment may be drastically reduced.  Also, if you live next to an industrial facility that puts out fumes of some sort, again, the wild yeast cells may be reduced.  And, here is something to remember, if the air ain’t fit for yeast cells, it probably isn’t fit for you either.

A Word of Warning:

Be it Wild Yeast or Commercial Yeast, there are a few things you must remember:

DO NOT use the microwave in any part of the process when you are working with yeast.  It will kill it dead, dead, dead!  Also, do not use any utensils that are made of reactive metals; iron, tin, aluminum.  Don’t even use enamel because the enamel may be chipped and there will be tin or iron underneath.

Use only glass, plastic, wood or stainless steel bowls, spoons or storage containers while working with your sponge or dough.