I have THE sweetest lady that is trying to get into sourdough and she has bought 4 of my starters from my booth and I’ve been flabbergasted and perplexed as to why she can’t get it going.. and I put a LOT of starter in my bags. I can grow a liter or 2 in a week with it easily.

Well, today I asked if I could just call her rather than playing text tag.

I found out 2 things that finally solved the mystery.

1. She’s been using conversion charts for weight = volume. 😫😭 She said she just didn’t want learn to use a scale. So, that means her feeds have been inconsistent, but that’s still not a really good reason because the dehydrated starter is already live cultures.

Well… after her telling me she’s using Walmart drinking water 50 times, she went out to check and it’s distilled.

So- that’s the problem. Distilled water is for like.. CPAP’s, Neti-pots, medical equipment or hydroponics. There’s zero minerals in it to help with the fermentation process. So…. now we know.

Just ALWAYS use a scale. Converting weight into volume cannot be accurate. Ever.

I’m going to give her a mason jar of live active starter so she can start baking and lots of dehydrated starter to keep on hand. Bless her heart, she’s been trying so hard!

🤍🤍🤍🤍 Problem solved!