Just use what you can find, which I think is really more the point than following a given recipe exactly. Can't find sesame stems? Get rice hulls. There you go, Si and K.
lol thanks for joing the convo Sea!!! I just posted a wikihow on the exact thing you posted before seeing it!! Great minds....lol Do you use the yeast in your garden as well as making bread??
Yes, but only when I have discard. The way I'm doing it now I never have any discard. And don't forget the Lactobacilli! I'm culturing those as well. :)
That Wiki is ok, but it's not the best IMO, for a couple of reasons.
You don't have to use dechlorinated water.
Science now shows us that the microbes we culture for levain come on our flour(s), not the skins of fruits or anything like that.
Using different flours can net you wildly differing results.
Airtight seal is
fine, these are anaerobes we're culturing (I debate this often in my SD groups, there are people who will insist on it despite the scientific facts), but yes, it can blow (that's why I use plastic ice cream containers, not glass with screw-on lids).
Unless you're using organic whole rye berries for the flour source, it's usually going to take you at least a week to see activity, not a couple of days. I think this is why most new SD bakers give up, believing they are unable to culture the microbes, which is really what we're doing. Just set the dinner table and they *will* come to eat.
They're not very clear on how to properly build the starter, doing it the way it's outlined in this Wiki you WILL end up with The Starter That Ate Detroit, and you'll go through a qualified metric shit-ton of flour JUST building the fucking starter. That's bullshit.
You WANT the alcohol odor! That's your sign of yeast activity! It may not smell like alcohol, it may smell like acetone. That's ok! It's still the same thing. Since I prefer a yeast-dominant type of bread, this is my goal. If I start detecting the sour odors most Americans associate with 'sourdough' then I know I've gone too far towards the whole wheat and time side.
The dark 'brown' (often black) liquid is called hooch, and yes, it is a sign the microbes have gone through all available food sources. It does not mean your starter is dead, however.
I keep about 200g of starter on hand at any one time. When it comes time to bake, I pour it out of my container and what remains is my inoculation culture. I use a 1:1 mix of organic AP flour and WW flour, sometimes with a small addition of spelt.
(Did you know that whole wheat is not, in fact, whole wheat? It is the white flour with wheat bran added BACK, no germ remains and the germ, the part the goes bad most quickly, is where most of the nutrients are.)
This is a somewhat lengthy article, but it digs a bit into the science. Keep in mind that one of the main reasons why the pineapple juice method is so effective is that the juice naturally selects out for the appropriate microbes, whereas just using water could allow anything to live. Once you have your microbial populations up, they will naturally disallow bad players, mostly through pH control.
Ok, now for something to chew on.
Lactic Acid Fermentation in Sourdough.