This is my new starter. My 8-year-old starter died back in June. I’ll blame it on the coronavirus but it was really my fault. I had been rationing the flour I was feeding it because the stores were out of flour and I didn’t have much left. I think I starved it. It started to smell bad, like alcohol and nail polish, and the last loaf I made with it was flat. Smelly and flat. Good bye starter.

It took about 5 tries before I could get a new starter going. I don’t know what I was doing wrong. It just never grew. One time I put it in the oven, low setting, and it grew but smelled terrible, like the old bananas I had sitting in the corner. And it fizzled. It was only after I used up the bag of flour I had been using and tried a new bag, different brand, and it TOOK OFF. Was it the flour? Did it get contaminated with some hand-sanitizer along the way? Bleach fumes? Or maybe it was me and my impatience? Who knows.

So, here is my new starter. Made from just flour, water, and wild yeast spores.

I took it out of the refrigerator for the photograph so it’s a bit subdued but this one is even better than my old – it doubles in volume in just a few hours.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. – George Bernard Shaw