The other day, before the day it rained, I got up, as I do every morning, went out to the kitchen, poured myself a cup of coffee, and noticed that the sourdough starter I had been using was flat; I mean dead flat.
I was aghast. Fortunately, for me, I had dehydrated a goodly amount of active starter, about six months ago, for just such an occasion. I have heard, and read, that most starters give their owners a fit of the vapors every now, and again. As I was thankful, every day, just to be able to have the beautiful, and robust starter that I had, I did not give this any thought, until then.
I cannot think of what I did to kill it, but, kill it I did. It had no bubbles, no nothing. I had not fed it for two days as I was busy baking with it. Normally, when I bake sourdough bread, I feed the starter, twice daily, for three days prior to the day I do the autolyse. This was no different. It was not due to be fed until that morning.
The only things I can think that might have upset it were as follows: 1) I have seen people on YT put their starters in shallow, sturdy, clear plastic containers, like ones you would get filled with gourmet olives, or pesto, from the store. I got a similar style container, (we ate the contents), cleaned it out, and replaced the original contents with the starter.
And, 2) we saw, on YT, a man say he could ripen an avocado over a twenty four hour period by covering it in flour. So, we bought a half dozen of the little buggers, and I put one in the container of bread flour, for the requisite twenty five hours.
Do not waste time with that notion. Nature has its own rules, and putting an avocado in flour to ripen it, is not one of them. I mention this because I am wondering, since I used the BF to feed the starter, (not thinking about contamination, duh), that maybe, even after washing the exterior of the fruit, if it still contaminated the flour, and therefore the starter.
I am not a scientist; just little old me. I am very careful about making sure my hands are clean before manipulating the starter, as well as any utensils being used. I do not have hot tap water with which to rinse dishes, and heating water in the kettle every time I did dishes would be ludicrous. I make do with what we have.
I have, since, fed it twice daily, these past few days, and put it back in the glass pint Mason jar, where it had dwelt, prior to its demise. I am hopeful that I can nurse it through to health again. (It appears to be happier in the small glass jar, as it is rising quite nicely after each feeding. Yay!)
Between the plants, and the starter, I am definitely learning humility.
Have I mentioned the kombucha?
Such is life. Please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.