How I Accidentally Murdered My Starter (And Lived to Bake About It)

Okay so I have to be real with you guys. When I first started baking sourdough like eight or ten months ago, I thought keeping a starter alive would be super easy. Spoiler alert: it's not easy. My starter Yeaston has taught me so much, mostly about patience and also about what happens when you forget to feed him for like three days in the Las Vegas heat. Let me just say he was NOT happy about it. And that's not even the worst thing I've done to a starter.

Here's the thing about starter care that nobody tells you when you're eleven and getting excited about baking bread. Your starter is literally a living thing. It's got billions of tiny yeast and bacteria buddies living in there, and they need food and attention like a pet. Except your pet makes delicious bread so it's actually way cooler than a hamster. I learned this the hard way.

In Las Vegas, where it gets absolutely bonkers hot, everything ferments faster. Like way faster. I used to feed Yeaston once a day like the internet said, but then he'd be super active and ready to go in like four hours instead of eight. Now I feed him twice a day when it's really hot, and honestly he's a lot less grumpy. Yes, his name is Yeaston but he has the personality of someone named Grumpy. He's earned it.

But here's my most embarrassing baker moment ever. It was winter, and I wanted to keep my starter warm, so genius eleven-year-old me put the jars in the oven. No heat, just sitting there. Except my mom didn't know they were in there and turned on the oven to make dinner. Long story short, my starters got literally baked alive. Like, actually cooked. It was awful and I felt terrible and basically had to start completely over. That's where my friend came through and let me borrow some of their starter so I could get back in the game.

The secret thing that actually works is keeping your starter in a consistent spot. I keep Yeaston in my kitchen in a specific corner where the temperature stays pretty chill, and I always feed him at roughly the same time. My dad thinks it's funny that I have a routine more strict than his actual job, but like, consistency is literally what makes your starter happy and stable. And also, maybe don't hide it in appliances.

When your starter is dialed in, it becomes your superpower. I use Yeaston several times a week to bake, and he just keeps going. Sure, I have to be responsible and feed him and definitely not leave him anywhere near kitchen appliances, but it's honestly way easier than people think once you've learned from your mistakes.

Take care of your starter and it'll take care of your bread. Trust me, I'm eleven, I've killed starters before, and I'm still running a bakery. So you can do it too.