How to keep a sourdough starter alive

A starter is flour, water and patience. Feed it once a day with equal weights of flour and water, keep it somewhere warm, and throw half of it away before each feed so it does not take over the kitchen.

If you bake once a week, keep it in the fridge and feed it the day before you bake. A starter that smells of nail varnish is hungry, not dead: feed it twice and it will recover.

When your starter doubles within six hours of a feed, it is ready to bake with. Our rye bread recipe is a good first loaf, because rye forgives a sleepy starter more than wheat does.

Questions about your starter are welcome at the counter. We have seen every kind of problem, and most of them are solved by a warmer spot and a little more time.