Appendix: Developing and Perpetuating a Sourdough Culture

There is so much confusion and misinformation surrounding the topic of making a sourdough culture that, even after more than a quarter century of working with sourdough (or perhaps because of that quarter century), I find myself baffled and befuddled by much of what I read. Sometimes, it seems as if the baker has to be a scientist in a lab coat and mask surrounded by test tubes to make sourdough. Sometimes, it seems as if the only way to make sourdough is to wait until Capricorn is somewhere or another in the sky, the winds are lightly from the east, the moon is waxing, and a special type of crystal is bobbing above the bowl of flour and water as one incants secret chants. Oh the mysteries! The reality is, gratefully, between these two extremes. To make a viable and long-lived sourdough culture takes understanding, persistence, and an occasional bit of intuition, but it is not a terribly daunting endeavor.