I'm going away for 3-6 mos and wonder if I can freeze my starter. Do I feed
it and freeze it directly after or how do I do it. Thanks in advance.
Nicki

Nicki Sinclair wrote:

> I'm going away for 3-6 mos and wonder if I can freeze my starter. Do I
> feed it and freeze it directly after or how do I do it. Thanks in
> advance.
> Nicki
>

You could dry it - that semms to be the easier way to do it.
Carl´s Friends drie their starter to mail them - so why not...

Another way introduced by
TradinDude wrote in "Any interest in a webpage?":

> to store your levain: ok so you take your very active and really
> rockin' starter, double its weight (at least... maybe a ratio more
> like 1:2 starter:new dough would be better) with new flour and water
> dough. knead in enough extra flour to make the dough very very stiff,
> but not so much there's flour spots in the dough. basically, get as
> much flour in it as the dough will hold and still be dough. please
> make sure it's well mixed, but you don't need to knead for 10 minutes
> or anything. break off pieces the size of a marble (1/2" diameter)
> and roll them into tight balls. Put 4-5 of these in a jar of flour,
> making sure they don't touch themselves or the side of the jar. You
> want them to be surrounded by flour. Let it sit about half an hour at
> room temp, then pop it in the refrigerator.
>
> You'll have to revive this: when you're ready to use it again, take
> out one of the balls, smash it to chunks, get it very wet... let it
> sit 24 hours then start feeding. I've kept starters in this condiiton
> for over a year. I think the balance of yeast/bacteria changes over
> time, but with a few days' feeding they come back pretty well.



Joschi


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Nicki Sinclair wrote:

> I'm going away for 3-6 mos and wonder if I can freeze my starter. Do I
> feed it and freeze it directly after or how do I do it. Thanks in
> advance.
> Nicki
>

You could dry it - that semms to be the easier way to do it.
Carl´s Friends drie their starter to mail them - so why not...

Another way introduced by
TradinDude wrote in "Any interest in a webpage?":

> to store your levain: ok so you take your very active and really
> rockin' starter, double its weight (at least... maybe a ratio more
> like 1:2 starter:new dough would be better) with new flour and water
> dough. knead in enough extra flour to make the dough very very stiff,
> but not so much there's flour spots in the dough. basically, get as
> much flour in it as the dough will hold and still be dough. please
> make sure it's well mixed, but you don't need to knead for 10 minutes
> or anything. break off pieces the size of a marble (1/2" diameter)
> and roll them into tight balls. Put 4-5 of these in a jar of flour,
> making sure they don't touch themselves or the side of the jar. You
> want them to be surrounded by flour. Let it sit about half an hour at
> room temp, then pop it in the refrigerator.
>
> You'll have to revive this: when you're ready to use it again, take
> out one of the balls, smash it to chunks, get it very wet... let it
> sit 24 hours then start feeding. I've kept starters in this condiiton
> for over a year. I think the balance of yeast/bacteria changes over
> time, but with a few days' feeding they come back pretty well.



Joschi


--
Address to mail me:
Um mir eine Nachricht zu schicken:

non_tox ::AT:: web :OT:: de

Nicki Sinclair wrote:

> I'm going away for 3-6 mos and wonder if I can freeze my starter. Do I
> feed it and freeze it directly after or how do I do it. Thanks in
> advance.
> Nicki
>

You could dry it - that semms to be the easier way to do it.
Carl´s Friends dry their starter to mail them - so why not...

Another way introduced by
TradinDude wrote in "Any interest in a webpage?":

> to store your levain: ok so you take your very active and really
> rockin' starter, double its weight (at least... maybe a ratio more
> like 1:2 starter:new dough would be better) with new flour and water
> dough. knead in enough extra flour to make the dough very very stiff,
> but not so much there's flour spots in the dough. basically, get as
> much flour in it as the dough will hold and still be dough. please
> make sure it's well mixed, but you don't need to knead for 10 minutes
> or anything. break off pieces the size of a marble (1/2" diameter)
> and roll them into tight balls. Put 4-5 of these in a jar of flour,
> making sure they don't touch themselves or the side of the jar. You
> want them to be surrounded by flour. Let it sit about half an hour at
> room temp, then pop it in the refrigerator.
>
> You'll have to revive this: when you're ready to use it again, take
> out one of the balls, smash it to chunks, get it very wet... let it
> sit 24 hours then start feeding. I've kept starters in this condiiton
> for over a year. I think the balance of yeast/bacteria changes over
> time, but with a few days' feeding they come back pretty well.



Joschi


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Address to mail me:
Um mir eine Nachricht zu schicken:

non_tox ::AT:: web :OT:: de


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Address to mail me:
Um mir eine Nachricht zu schicken:

non_tox ::AT:: web :OT:: de

[[ This message was both posted and mailed: see
the "To," "Cc," and "Newsgroups" headers for details. ]]

In article >, Nicki Sinclair
> wrote:

> I'm going away for 3-6 mos and wonder if I can freeze my starter. Do I feed
> it and freeze it directly after or how do I do it. Thanks in advance.
> Nicki

Freezing appears problematic. Some starters survive, others don't.
Carl's starter in Carl's hands survived being frozen for six months. My
experience is the lactobacteria get whacked, badly.

FWIW, a well fed, thick starter, in the fridge will easily keep 6
months in my experience. That is the way I keep a starter going when I
am going away.

http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/howcanis...tertosome.html

Cheers,

Darrell

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telus.net

Nicki Sinclair wrote:
> I'm going away for 3-6 mos and wonder if I can freeze my starter. Do I feed
> it and freeze it directly after or how do I do it. Thanks in advance.
> Nicki

You can freeze it. If it's still the same starter depends.

I would say that starters which tolerate "freezing" have been frozen
before and the organisms survived the process.

Apparently Carl's has. Look at Carl's web site.

Same goes for drying a starter.

If I could not take a starter with me - actually unthinkable to survive
3-6 month without decent bread (you're not going to Europe, are you?).

Maintaining a starter "on the road" isn't difficult. There are fridges
around on most more civilized trails on this planet. Refresh once a
month or every two month when kept in a fridge.

Now, if baking "on the road" is not an option, I would go the
three-prong approach (works fine with starters - triple three
times...**) store it in the fridge, dry it and freeze it. Maybe do a
test before with drying and freezing and see what happens.

Or - forget the whole thing, leave it in the fridge, see what happens
when you get back and if it does not work any more, get a new one.

As for when to do the process - freezing or drying (or making bread for
that matter). Answer is when the highest germ count of sourdough
organisms is present. That's when activity peaked i. e. starts
decreasing after being fed.

See what that does for you. In the meantime, there have been several
reasonable posts.

Samartha


** for all the however so elaborate schemes of maintaining, storing,
reviving starters: keep a smaller amount - 1/2 oz, 10 g in a small
container in the fridge right after it was very alive for up to two
month (one month to have easier recovery). Revive it by tripling three
times and do what is sensible in your environment.

Samartha Deva wrote:
>
> As for when to do the process - freezing or drying (or making bread for
> that matter). Answer is when the highest germ count of sourdough
> organisms is present. That's when activity peaked i. e. starts
> decreasing after being fed.
>
Well, yes--but there is another step when drying starter. Carl
used the activated stock starter to innoculate additional flour
and water that was to be dried. That was set out to dry as soon
as activity was noticed, well before peak. From the FAQ's:

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/food/sourdo...ection-33.html

Regards,

Charles
--
Charles Perry
Reply to:

** A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand **

Darrell Greenwood wrote:

> [[ This message was both posted and mailed: see
> the "To," "Cc," and "Newsgroups" headers for details. ]]
>
> In article >, Nicki Sinclair
> > wrote:
>
>> I'm going away for 3-6 mos and wonder if I can freeze my starter. Do I feed
>> it and freeze it directly after or how do I do it. Thanks in advance.
>> Nicki
>
> Freezing appears problematic. Some starters survive, others don't.
> Carl's starter in Carl's hands survived being frozen for six months. My
> experience is the lactobacteria get whacked, badly.

why don't they during drying/ i can see that the yeasts sporulate or
whatever they're called but the lactobacilli/

b/, still waiting for a new keyboard