I wonder how many people on this forum have read that book. If you had
read it, you would not be paying any attention to people like Samartha
who like to make fun of anyone who creates a starter by catching
microorganisms from the atmosphere.

Yet that is exactly what Wood advocates. From Chapter Two entitled
"The Ingredients of Sourdough Bread", on pages 8 and 9:

+++++
"... you can capture your own [culture] by simply exposing a mixture
of flour and water to the air. When the right organisms find your
mixture, they will grow and survive."

"Do not cover the bowl with plastic or anything else that wil exclude
the organisms you are attempting to capture."
+++++

This debunks the cult fetish practice of trying to make cultures from
organisms alleged to be present in the grain. If they are present in
the flour you have,then you can do it that way if it turns you on. But
that is not the only way to make a genuine starter, so don't let cult
fetish bullies like Samartha tell you otherwise.

Read about it for yourself: One of the world's sourdough experts says
in plain English that you can capture organisms from the atmosphere to
make a genuine sourdough starter. He goes on to point out (p. 9) that
there are some "artisan bakers" who advocate the use of freshly ground
organic flour with a cover to keep out airborne organisms. And he
mentioned "rye sours". But he does not comment here on the viability
of such a process. And he certainly does not claim that it is the only
way to make an authetic sourdough starter.

Notice that he says "freshly ground organic flour". That's the first I
have ever heard about that. No wonder my attempts to make starter by
such a method failed - I was using flour I had bought from a store -
already milled a long while ago. Presumably if there were any
organisms in it when it was milled, they must be dead now. And the
flour was not labelled "organic". So I had two strikes against me.

Here is the conclusion I have reached: Making a starter by the method
advocated by Samartha and his cult buddies requires the use of freshly
milled organic flour, if it is going to work at all. Maybe you can buy
that kind of flour at the local whole foods store. But if you want to
catch organisms from the atmosphere, that is just as valid a method as
trying to get flour-based organisms to start.

We all know that the only proven method of making our own starter is
to make it initially from a known starter. Relying on flour-based or
atmospheric-based organisms is a hit/miss procedure.

So don't let these cult fetishists bully you into believing that
theirs is the only way to make a starter. Their opinions are not
credible, according to Wood.