Jahosacat wrote:
> How many people keep multiple starters and why?

Donna,
First I had one (an OSF from SDI). Then I started one from commercial
rye flour, but it wasn't what I wanted so I started over again and that
time it was better, but it was still not as reliable as the OSF
(learning is a continuous process). Then I got a Danish starter from a
relative in Denmark and for a few years baked Danish rye every few
weeks, then baked it less often but kept the starter refreshed anyway.
Then for a while I was also maintaining an SDI "French" starter which
was less acidic - mostly because my kid didn't fancy a tangy loaf and I
didn't understand how to control the acidity of the bread with the OSF
starter. But over the years I have gone back down to just one, the OSF
in its current manifestation which works for everything I want it to do
(after some amount of "trial and success"). It will make tangy white
bread, mild white bread, Danish rye bread, ciabatta (but I generally
add some commercial yeast for that one and use the starter for flavor),
whole wheat bread, olive walnut bread, cracked wheat bread, wheat berry
bread, "half-wheat" bread, and Krusticks. There are something like 30
nonlinear coupled partial differential equations that govern the
sourdough bread process. I have a hard enough time keeping one starter
under control. I will happily let others to try to tame other
cultures.
Cheers,
Doc