Nina Surya

Judith and E, those are awesome ideas, thanks for sharing!

And as extra bonus I can now dip into tempeh-making experiences :) I tried to search for "tempeh" but the forum search machine didn't come up with anything else than the sour dough starter thread.

This is such a great and supportive site, thank you Permies!

Hello fellow Permies!

Reading the sourdough starter thread, I stumble upon something that grabs my attention and keeps on nagging, so I need to ask:

For all your ferments, what is the go-to warm spot in your household to keep the ferments warm and cozy and producing the yummy pro-biotica we love so much?

I've created a little shelf (with cob) next to our rocket mass heater bell, it's also sitting over the exit-side of the exhaust tube, that is nice and warm without being too hot. The only problem is that it actually isn't big enough (!) and I should make it more level.

But what is your favourite spot to cheer your ferments on to greater growth?
Looking forward to reading your ideas :)

Timothy Norton wrote:I had my first try at starting a sourdough and utilized the information from the How to create a Sourdough starter thread.

Hello there Timothy,
Ah! Thank you for that link! I'll go over there to study.

Tereza Okava wrote:Nina!
I see you are in zone 8-- I am in 9, and I notice my sourdoughs vary a lot depending on the season/climate. Right now I am in summer (Brazil) and my sourdough lives in the refrigerator, if not I have to feed it 5 times a day (or more). I don't think 17°C is too low (and I use city water, which does not lack additives, unfortunately). I also find when it's hot I need to make my sourdough MUUUUUCH thicker than Sandor Katz suggests (mine is almost hard to mix with a spoon), otherwise it rots immediately. In cooler weather, I can have a more runny sourdough (that lives on the counter).

Are you starting with white flour, or using some additive like raisins or fruit? Some people add a bit of rye to start, or use the soaking water from raisins (the one batch of sourdough I did with that was the best I've ever had).
I think the key is really just to keep trying. Mix up your starter, leave it til it bubbles, feed again, and that's really it.

Tereza, that's it, my starter attempts rotted every time.
I kept it on the counter top. I can't remember anymore if I attempted to make it in the winter or summer, perhaps freaking out about 17 degrees C at night had to do with another fermenty adventure alltogether?
But instead of a bubbly batch of goodness I got a stinky pot of runny, , dark brown, horrible goo, no matter what.

So I'll try making it thicker - and I'll try making it now, it's winter, so "too hot" isn't a problem.

At that time I tried to make it with biological whole grain flour, I imagined the little bubbly beasties would like that most. I didn't use any additives.
At the moment I don't have any raisins nor rye flour, but I did manage to find locally milled 'artisan' flour for baking, so I'll be using that.
I'm also experimenting with making yoghurt (and eventually cheese) from raw milk since a couple of days.
I'll make two starter batches, one with water, one with yoghurty fermenty liquid. Let's see how it goes...

Thank you for your helpful comments!

Hello Permies Who Bake,

Tereza was so kind to suggest I'd post my sourdough starter problems here and ask for the help of you, kind, helpful people.

I'd like to get into sourdough baking, but haven't had any luck with the starter.

I've tried to make a starter a couple of times, and once I got a starter from someone, but it didn't do anything at all, even though I fed it (and obviously tried to rise bread dough with it).

So here's what I've done previously - it's almost two years ago (I gave up), so I'll try to remember and describe as well as I can.

I have Sandor Katz's "The Art of Fermentation" and followed the recipe there:
"The simplest way of starting a sourdough from scratch is to mix a small amount of flour and water in a bocl, a little more flour than water, and stir unil smooth. Add a little more water or flour as necessary to obtain a batter that is liquid and pourable, yet thick enough to cling to the spoon." Etc.

At the time I thought the trouble for the starting never starting was the flour, which was regular wheat flour from the supermarket, or perhaps that the temperature dropped to 17degrees Celsius at night in the kitchen. As I re-read the recipe now I see he's making a point of making sure that the water one uses is un- or dechlorinated. Aha! I used regular tapwater at the time, perhaps that was the trouble.

Any advice or tips are greatly appreciated, I'd like to get baking sourdough bread !
Thank you in advance.

Tereza Okava wrote: ...if you open up a thread here ...

Thank you Tereza! Heading that way NOW :)

PS. The link took me to somewhere else, but I posted my question here.

I occasionally bake bread, but would love to get to the rhythm of baking sourdough bread. The trouble there is that I don't have a starter.
I've tried to start a starter a couple of times, but failed.
I also got a starter once from someone, but it didn't do anything - at all, ever. So I'm assuming the starter was dead. I did feed it, but nothing happened.

Hello Madeleine,

What kind of ducks do you have? I'm thinking of maybe getting a tiny flock of runner ducks ( 1 drake, 2 females ) to keep the slug invasion in check. What is your experience, do they gobble up slugs?

Shell-less eggs are caused by a calcium deficiency. I find my chicken use the oystershell grit to help their digestion, but they still crave their calcium on the side.
I also had a chicken laying 'leather eggs' until I started to feed some of the eggshells back to the chicken. They would also dumpster dive in the compost heap for eggshells.
I'm not sure salt is good for the birds... You might do a little test as to what they want? Offer the mineral salt free choice and crushed egg shells free choice, let the ducks decide :)

As for the pause in laying, as you've remarked, they lay less or not at all when it's very hot or, like here now, very cold.

Enjoy the peak of summer!

I'm voting for the mullein flower oil and garlic oil, they work wonders, especially the mullein flower oil.

It's easy to make: in the summer, collect mullein flowers in a small glass jar, filling about 1/3, pour some good quality oil on top (I use olive oil or jojoba oil) and let it sit for six weeks. Strain out the flowers and store the oil in a dark, cool place.

The procedure is approximately the same for garlic, but garlic is such strong, fiery stuff that you only need a little bit of garlic and, in ratio, some more oil and the seeping period is much quicker, 2-3 days. For thin skin I'd opt for the mullein flower oil, but if you don't have it at hand, go the garlic oil route.

My LGD (live stock guardian dog) gets itchy ears from ear wax and I clean his ears with mullein oil. He likes it so much he's wagging his tail and otherwise standing very, very still during the earcleaning session. Afterwards he jumps around with joy, big ,silly boy

Jay Angler wrote:Wow, and I thought our place was muddy in spots!

Yes, I know! Thank you Jay, for brainstorming with me.

The photos are taken from our front door, this is the most heavy traffic area and in a landscape dent.
We're getting a drainpipe dug in soon-ish, and then put gravel on top, that's the plan for now.

We'll be looking into woodchips to amend the paths!
At the moment we're utilising old roof tiles and flat stones (from tearing down a shed with stone walls) as steppingstones, but even those are sinking in. Plus, if one is walking all too hasty, the tripping factor is a nuisance. So slowly does it, zen

The idea of small ridges (and gutters) to lead the water away, I'll give it a try.
The reason I haven't tried it before is that water doesn't visibly flow over the ground, but slowly seeps into and through the soil, puddling at low places.
But I'm quite confident now that woodchips, hugelbeds, raised beds and gutters or swales (depending on the spot) are the way to go.

We'll see next year what the difference is!