Before: Finally, some activity

After: Phase 4

Six days later and I’m finally able to post an update. My culture finally started to look alive yesterday morning. I decided to give it another day before moving on to phase 4.

I realized that the real reason my culture is taking twice as long to develop as the book directs is that it’s cold in here. I should have kept it in the pantry (where our heater is). It’s always warm in there.

This morning I proceeded to phase 4: discarding half of the phase 3 culture and adding 2 ounces flour and 1.5 ounces filtered water. This is supposed to swell and nearly double in size in 4-24 hours (so in my case, 2 days…). The next step is making the mother starter. Finally. I may actually be able to make some bread this weekend.