[Soliloquy]

To catch a sourdough starter:

Pour boiling water into a non-metal bowl and drain. (To sterilize it--you don't want any mold spores or anything.)

Put in 1 cup of water (room temp, preferably filtered or bottled so there's no chlorine, but tap will probably work) and 1 cup of rye flour. Stir with a non-metal spoon.

Cover with a breathable cloth. Several layers of cheesecloth work well. A very thin dishtowel can be used. A fine plastic mesh bag will also work (sold with painting supplies). You want to let the wild yeast (from the air) in and keep bugs out. Let it sit on your counter, the top of your fridge, someplace with access to circulating air. Don't out it next to a bag of potatoes or very ripe fruit as you could grow mold.

Every day for seven days, sterilize a new bowl, transfer the starter to the new bowl, and feed it 1 cuo of rye flour and 1 cup of water. Stir and cover.

After 7 days, you should have close to 2 quarts of starter. It should be bubbly, kind of sppngey, and smell yeasty and sour.

From now on, think of it as a pet. . You only need to switch bowls once a month now. Feed it 1 cup of rye and 1 cup of water every day and stir.

If you need to refrigerate it, you can feed it once a week. Let it come to room temp, feed it, let it sit at room temp for 6 hours before putting back in the fridge. If you leave it for more than a week, it will probably be fine, just feed it at room temp for several days to re-activate it.

When you use it to bake, leave 1 cup in the bowl and feed it. If you need to bake 2 days in a row, you can feed it every 2 hours but never feed it more flour than what you have: if you have 1 cup of starter, only 1 cup of flour. If you have 1/2 cup of starter, only 1/2 cup of flour.

Sick kid, gotta go