If your starter is all purpose flour (I assume UBAP means unbromated
all-purpose white flour?), the biggest challenge for you will be adapting to
whole wheat baking since home-milled flour is always whole wheat (unless
you've got some sort of super fancy roller mill at home that will separate
the flour -- I've not seen any of those ....)

White vs whole wheat baking is a whole other ball of wax, so, with that in
mind ...

1) I use my own home-milled stuff. It doesn't take long to grind up, though
if I'm revving it up from the fridge for a bake, I'll usually grind enough
to feed it for a couple of days in a row all at once.

2)I've got a whole-wheat starter at 50% hydration and a whole rye at 100%. I
threw out my white flour starter because I was tired of feeding it and not
using it. Haven't baked a white loaf in months and months.

3) Yes. I'm getting more oven spring, for one, and the dough requires more
water than commercial flour. Could be completely psychosomatic, but the
flavor seems more bold, less muted.

4) It's a lot cheaper in the long run to grind up my own grains and, since
I'm using home-ground flour for all my other breads, commercial whole-wheat
and whole-rye would likely go rancid long before I could use up the bag.

Good luck!


--

Jeff Miller


________________________________

From:
] On Behalf Of WRK
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 10:53 AM
To: Sourdoug Group Members
Subject: Feeding starter


Hello All:

I am just beginning to venture into grinding my own grain. My supplies of
commercial flour products are dwindling.

To date, I have always maintained my starters using UBAP flour and filtered
tap water. Thus, my questions involve the use of home-milled flour versus
commercial flour as starter food for the dough faeries.

1) Do those of you with home milling experience continue to maintain their
starter(s) with commercial, UBAP or do you use your own home-milled stuff?
2) What starter(s) are you using?
2) If using home-milled, what do you normally feed -- Hard red winter/
spring, hard white, soft white, a blend, etc?
3) If you do regularly feed only home milled, did you noticed any
differences in your starter or the flavor of your breads from the switch?
4) Do you have personal opinions/ experience either for or against using
home-milled flour versus store purchased UBAP as food for the starter?

Many thanks,

Ray