Originally Posted by
gfunkdave
Well, it's been almost a week and the starter doesn't seem to be doing much. I feed it once a day with white flour. I have started putting it on a heating pad set to low in case it's too cold here. In the mornings, there is sometimes a single bubble on the surface but the sour smell I thought I smelled a few days ago is gone.
Perhaps the yeast can't make it to the 22nd floor after all. I might add a few grains of commercial yeast to make a polish, and wait on the wild yeast to when I move to Maine.
If you are going to give up on the starter, I wouldn't add yeast to it as I think this will be the worst of all worlds.
Just start a really slow poolish from scratch. Even if some consider this in some way lessor than sourdough, it's just an opinion I disagree with. You'll get some lovely bread that is completely hassle free and better than pretty much anything you're likely to have tasted before.
