NOBODY BREATHE!!!

Ok, if you must breathe, please make it slow and controlled. No sudden movements!!! I think….and I hope I’m not jinxing this….Gerri might be ready to bake with!

To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure I was going to get to this point. When I restarted Gerri, it seemed like she wasn’t growing much the first few days. Now for historical context, I have never been able to get bread to rise in my house without the help of the oven light, so I started to wonder if my house was just too cold. I mean, it has been above the surface temperature of Neptune around here lately, I wouldn’t blame her for a second. Everything I had read said under no circumstances should you put your starter in a warm place for fear of exhausting the yeast. But I now wonder if any of these articles/videos have ever contended with Saskatchewan weather? Plus, a few classmates commented on past posts that they know other people who swear that keeping starters warm is the key to success.

Online learning thought of the week

While online learning puts a plethora of resources at our fingertips, there is something to be said about asking those within your circle (even a digital one) for their advice and experience!

 

So, I did the thing, and I bundled Gerri up in a quilt in the corner of my bedroom and hoped beyond hope that she wouldn’t explode. She didn’t! Look how beautiful she is!!

There are a couple notable differences between this Gerri and old Gerri:

• She smells lovely. The last Gerri smelled like rubbing alcohol. This Gerri smells a little sour, but more of a sweet sour.
• She has a lovely flush colour. If you remember from last week, I learned that rye starters can have a red tinge to them. New Gerri has the smallest red colour to her and nowhere near the diarrhea inducing pink shade old Gerri had.

According to this article, and this Tiktok video, Gerri is showing signs that she is ready to bake with! I appreciated that these resources have pictures and videos that I can compare to Gerri. While the article gave an additional sign that Gerri may be ready, I appreciated being able to see exactly how to starter moved in the video.

 

Disappointing Resource Alert

You would think the Food Network would be a solid source for information, since food is what they do. Nay, nay. Not in this case. Three sentences about what to look for, with zero pictures, is exactly zero parts helpful. However! I have been curious about how storing a starter in the fridge works, so I don’t have to bake bread constantly. So even though I didn’t find what I was looking for this time, I did find some useful information for later!

 

Now that Gerri isn’t dead, and I’m fairly certain she isn’t going to poison me, I’m starting to search for recipes! I won’t have time to bake with her until this weekend, so that gives me plenty of time to search and drool. I can almost taste success!!

 

*Photo to manifest successful bread