Natural leaven days 3, 4 & 5
Since I'm going to be feeding this thing and keeping it alive, I'd better give it a name. From now on (at Elly's suggestion), his name is Larry the Leaven.
Anyway, I fed and watered Larry daily over the weekend, and he's looking quite healthy now. A gently sweet, yeasty aroma has arrived today, along with the beginnings of nice sourness. Hopefully he'll make me some nice bread this coming weekend.
Day 3: 100g water, 4 rounded tsp each of rye flour and white flour — discard three quarters, mix in the water, then strain out the raisins with a tea strainer before returning to the jar and stirring in the flour;
Day 4, 5 and onward: feed on a daily diet of 100g water and 125g strong white flour, after discarding three quarters — if you use some for baking, just replace that with the water and flour.
I'm keeping him as close to 20°C as I can manage all the time — according to my thermometer the room temperature varies between about 14 and 18°C.
