I’ll keep this brief since what you really want to read is Martin’s blog on this subject (links below). Anyway, having read his starter page a few times and reading Jonathan’s comment, I went with grape skins, water and rye flour which I put into an airtight storage container (with the airtight seal removed). It’ll sit on the kitchen counter for a few days until I see the bubbles rising up (minus the torches and pitchforks) at which point I’ll do the needful and prepare it for production.

So, on to the next challenge. I have a Cusinart stand mixer I purchased in 2005 and it’s frankly showing its age. I make peanut butter/oatmeal/pumpkin dog biscuits every week or so and it struggles with mixing those. It’s also experiencing a stress fracture in the mixing attachment. So a week or two back I went hunting for a replacement. I thought I’d settled on a KitchenAid Pro 600 only to find that with Covid, KitchenAid machines are akin to Unobtanium with most retailers having no idea when they will be in stock (cue those who take advantage of this and sell them at a hefty premium).

Since my primary need is mixing dog biscuit dough or bread dough, I visited the KingArthur website to see if they had any… and they do. I ordered one today and will look forward to its arrival shortly.

The manufacturer is Sweden-based and can be found here: https://www.ankarsrumoriginalusa.com/

So, back to that sourdough starter. Martin’s expansive series can be found here:

https://mwidlake.wordpress.com/2020/12/18/sourdough-creating-the-starter/

https://mwidlake.wordpress.com/2021/01/19/sourdough-making-a-loaf/

Stay tuned.