Hello All:

Today I finished activating the Russian culture. When I started, I also started a control containing flour and water only. Both the Russian and the control activated within 24 hours. Both had the stench of a restaurant dumpster in the hot, summer sun. The hooch formed in the middle of the Russian and further down near the bottom in the control.

Following Dr. Wood's directions in Classical Sourdoughs I washed both the Russian culture and the control. The Russian revived nicely and over the course several successive washings developed into a fragrant, active starter meeting the description of a healthy starter outlined in: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-gro...dough/starters -- more important, after two days, the control did not.

I am baking Tanya's Peasant Black Bread with it today. However, my version of Dr. Wood/ Tanya's recipe uses 100% home milled flour.

Ray