Hi....thank you for doing this thread...always love to read up on sourdough starters. Even though I have used sourdough starter for many many years, I still consider myself quite the novice. My friend once gave me a loaf of her bread made with only 3-4 ingredients (made with freshly ground, very finely, hard wheat flour, it was so amazing and sandwich loaf consistency, so moist that I couldn't wait to make a peanut butter sandwich. The bread seemed to just melt in my mouth. She shared some of her starter with me and I took down her recipe, step by step, and was successful many times. Unfortunately, with time restraints on hand at the time and all the rules I knew at the time about sourdough starters, I could not keep up with it and let it sit in the fridge for over a year or two, actually I've done that with another starter I purchased from Azure Standard. When I took it out of the fridge, needless to say, it had that famous dark liquid on top-that I experienced before. I purchased the one from Azure Standard thinking the one my friend gave me was dead.....which I let sit unopened for over a year too... My friend who shared the starter with me said she had success with adding pineapple juice to her starter and it came back to life.....but I don't think she ever let it sit for over a year. I did not have pineapple juice but I had apple juice.....and wallaahh...both starters came back to life. So no more worrying for me with adding flour according to the rules. I will let it sit in my fridge for weeks without touching it, never have done a discard pile and I still get amazing bread every time. I do keep two jars of it just in case. I just feed it before using, let it sit on the counter overnight and it is bubbly and ready for use the next day, if it shows a slow start I just repeat the process and it comes back every time. I use Azure Standard organic all purpose flour because I do not have that amazing grinder my friend has...I don't think they make it anymore, she inherited it from her mom.....and honestly, I did not want to invest in a grinder not knowing if it would come out as fine as hers.
Heidi shared a recipe from Kate but I wasn't sure if it is the same Kate that I found my soft loaf recipe...I also make rolls with the batch---it's a big recipe that even for my needs I can store some in the freezer and share a few loaves to dear friends...never had a complaint, only praise.
Being a visual learner, I found this YouTube recipe from Kate who also has an Amish background....very easy to follow along. I enjoy her channel. The recipe Heidi shared looks similar, but the website looked unfamiliar. Here is the YouTube link:
I make this recipe in Utah, but I've recently made it Florida, still came out pretty much the same. I didn't make any allowances for altitude according to the books, just watched what the culture and the texture of the kneading process was doing, adjusted if necessary and baked it at the usual recommended temperature.
Hope this helps those that stress over the starter.....feel free to experiment and learn from your schedule.