Finally Am Trying to Activate My Starters

[norma427]

I am going to try and activate my starters.  I just feed and watered them this morning.  Now they are in the proofing box and the temperature of the proofing box is 85 degrees F.  Hopefully I can get them started and then try some pizzas and breads from them. 

Norma

[Bill/SFNM]

Good luck, Norma.

BTW, I'd be very careful about cross-contamination. The cultures are at their very weakest right now and the slightest bit of exposure to another culture could give unexpected results.

[norma427]

Bill,

Thanks for saying good luck.  I will go though the whole process with pictures and maybe other people can see what I am doing right or doing wrong.  I had bought these starter in March 2009.  That was when I just was starting to make pizza and have never tried to get them to activate, because then I thought I really don’t know enough about pizza making to try and use one.  I just fed and watered them again.  They did look like they were bubbling.  Hope I am doing this right.  I will be careful not to get them so close together. Thanks for the tip about the cross-contanation. I had them apart when I first started to activate them this morning. When I watered and fed them, I did use two different spatulas to do the mix.  Hopefully things will go well with them.  I am anxious to try out a starter to see how it behaves, in a pizza or bread. I have only made natural starters before with Toby’s help, so this should be interesting.

Thanks for your guidance.

Pictures below of starters, starting to bubble and envelope when I bought the starters. That was a long while ago that I bought these starters.

Norma

[norma427]

Pictures of my two starters this morning.  The Ischia seems to have increased in volume more than the Camaldoli.  Both have different sizes of bubbles.  I am going to take them out of the proofing box this morning, because I have to be at market today and can't watch them.  I am going to feed them and see what happens. These starters have become active in less than 24 hrs.  That has surprised me.

1st picture both starters
2nd picture Ischia starter
3rd picture Camaldoli

Norma

[s00da]

is this the fastest activation ever?

/knock on wood

[norma427]

is this the fastest activation ever?

/knock on wood

s00da,

I don't know about this being the fastest activation ever.  This is what my starters looked like tonight when I got home from market.  I don't know how these pictures will post either.  I tried to make all my pictures from today all smaller at the same time, and I made them all to small.  Now I have to make them all bigger.  If it isn't one problem it is another.   

I also say knock on wood.

Norma

[norma427]

Sorry, I have my pictures all messed up from today!  I had to change these 5 times before I could post them. 

Norma

[s00da]

a clear hooch is a good sign. what about the smell?

[norma427]

a clear hooch is a good sign. what about the smell?

s00da,

Thanks for telling me the clear hooch is good.    They both smell different. Both smell great to me.  I fed both starters last night and took pictures.  I am going to take more pictures now, so I will post all of them at once. 

I am still wondering after reading many posts and the book that I got with the starters, just how you know when these are active enough and then can refrigerate them. 

Many things to think about before I can start using these starters, if all works out well.

Norma

[norma427]

Late last night after feeding both starters.

Norma

[norma427]

What both starters looked like this morning.

Norma

[norma427]

pictures

Norma

[s00da]

the pictures are inline with what is expected. the ischia has more gas power than the camaldoli and ur images show the same.

seems you're on your way to italian starter goodness 

[norma427]

the pictures are inline with what is expected. the ischia has more gas power than the camaldoli and ur images show the same.

seems you're on your way to italian starter goodness 

sOOda,

Thanks for telling me my starters are in line with what you expected.  Can you also tell me when I will know when my starters are finished activating?  I really don’t know what to look for except to have about a two inch liquid on the top of the starters.  If they do have this much liquid until tonight, do I then refrigerate? 

I am anxious to try out these Italian starters, if I don’t mess something up until then.   

Thanks for your help in guiding me though this activation. 

Norma

[s00da]

Norma, once your starters become "really active" you can then refrigerate them. Really active would mean that if you feed them, they would double up in 2 1/2 hours. I guess this is what the manual says also.

[norma427]

Norma, once your starters become "really active" you can then refrigerate them. Really active would mean that if you feed them, they would double up in 2 1/2 hours. I guess this is what the manual says also.

s00da,

Thanks again for your help.    Mine aren't really active at this time.  I will continue to feed them.  Maybe I need to feed them more often.  Yesterday while I was at market they didn't get fed until nighttime and today, I only fed them in the morning.  Guess I am thinking about going to two feeds a day.  This whole starter activating is interesting, but I don't think the book gives enough information. 

Will post more pictures later tonight.

Norma

[TXCraig1]

If you have clear hooch and a plesant smell, I think you have won the main battle. I know I didn't have either when I activated mine. They stunk and required several washings.

I think if you are getting a good 2+ inches of foam and bubbles 2-4 hours after feeding, you are good to go.

Craig

[TXCraig1]

I would try to feed them every 6 hours during activation, but 12 hours is OK too. After you feed them, take a spatula and wipe down the side of the container so you can see how high the foam and bubbles went up when you are away. They can go up and fall back down in 12 hours.

Craig

[norma427]

Craig,

Thanks for helping me also.  I appreciate any help, because I am a newbie when it comes to trying to activate these starters. I also did the stupid thing of trying to activate two at one time, so I have to be extra careful not to contaminate the other one.
Nothing usually goes smooth for me the first time, so I don’t know if I am out of the woods yet.

Sorry to hear your starters required several washings.  I just threw out some starter and fed and mixed again, so I will see what happens now.  I was just ready to upload these pictures.  I used new containers.  I hated to throw out any of the starters, but I guess that is the way it goes. 

Thanks for your additional post.  I think that is where I went wrong, in not feeding them every 6 hours.  Will see how things go from here on.

Thanks,

Norma

[norma427]

rest of pictures

Norma