Wow, a tremendous amount of great information. It appears that I've been
doing everything bass akwards. I like the advice on building from a small
volume. I have NOT been doing that, which could be a contributing factor.
I used 1/2 bread flour and 1/2 whole wheat flour to start but then switched
to all bread flour after it got going because the wife didn't like the whole
wheat taste. (
I'll definitely try the small volume approach.

As far as feeding to a 'stable' starter, I would guess about 10-12 over a
week's time. It surprised me, too. I had a quart jar about 1/3 full and it
overflowed one night so it was pretty active. It toned down after that.
The comment that 'if it doesn't double in volume as a starter, it won't
double the bread" makes a lot of sense. Also, I could actually be adding
TOO MUCH starter to the recipe, hence not giving the starter enough food to
chew on.

The link I was referring to is http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm

Thanks to all and I'll be looking for more advice.

Tom
"Kenneth" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 11 Apr 2007 09:49:56 -0400, "Tom"
wrote:

After feeding, it frothes with a gusto after an hour or so at
80 degrees.

Hi Tom,

Through (approximately) how many cycles of feeding have you
had that experience?

I ask because that seems incredibly fast for a stable
culture.

There are many folks here who will assist, so hang in there.

All the best,
--
Kenneth

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