Sourdough Starter
Every beautiful loaf of sourdough starts with the same thing: the starter. A sourdough starter is nothing more than flour and water left to ferment until it’s brimming with natural wild yeast and good bacteria. Once established, your starter can last for years and years with regular care and attention.
You can definitely inherit a starter from a friend of relative or you can purchase one; however, it is very easy to start one on your own. Creating your own sourdough starter at home is a simple and fun activity.
A lot of sourdough starter recipes measure our flour and water in weight rather than volume measurements. I’ve found it a lot easier to just use measuring cups rather than weighing out flour and water. If you’d like to get very specific with it, check out some of the other resources like videos and posts online.
If you’d like a simple process that doesn’t require weighing of ingredients, here is an easy way to create your very own flour child!
🌿 What You’ll Need
Flour: Whole wheat or all-purpose. Either will work and you can just start with what you have on hand. Whole wheat tends to get things going faster.
Water: Filtered or tap water left out overnight (so chlorine dissipates).
Jar or container with lid: Clear glass is ideal so you can see bubbles forming.
Spoon or spatula: I prefer silicone.
Measuring cups: to measure out the flour and water for adding other the starter.
Rubber band: to place around the outside of your container so you can tell how much your starter is changing in size.
🥣 Step-by-Step Guide
Day 1: Mix the Base
Combine ½ cup flour + ¼ cup water in your jar.
Stir until you have a thick, paste-like batter.
Scrape down the sides, cover loosely with a lid or cloth, and let it sit at room temperature.
Day 2: First Feeding
You may or may not see bubbles yet — both are normal.
Discard approximately half of the mixture.
Add ½ cup flour + ¼ cup water. Mix, cover, and let rest.
Days 3–5: Build Strength
By now you should see bubbles, smell a mild tang, and notice the mixture rising and falling.
Continue the same process: discard half, feed with ½ cup flour + ¼ cup water every 24 hours.
When you start to see some bubbles and activity in your starter, you can begin using your discard to explore sourdough discard recipes.
Day 6–7: Ready to Bake
When your starter doubles in size within 6–8 hours of feeding, it’s strong enough to bake bread with.
It should smell pleasantly sour, like yogurt or fruit.
Mark the jar with a rubber band after feeding to watch how quickly it rises.
🫙 Starter Maintenance
Storage: If you are not using your starter for a few days, store it in the fridge. This slows down the fermentation process. It is basically like putting it to sleep. When you are are ready to bake, take it out of the fridge, let it warm up, then do a discard and feeding.
Feeding: I find that 2/3 flour + 1/3 water is a good amount to feed my starter for the recipes that I bake with.
Recovery: If you let your starter go for too long, either out on the counter, or in the fridge. Do a few cycles of discard and feeding to revive it.
Cleaning: I like to call it giving my flour child a bath, but every so often I do a thorough cleaning of my starter container to keep everything fresh and clean. Put your starter in another container, while you wash your starter container with soap and water.
🌿 Tips for Success
Warmth helps: Starters thrive between 70–75°F. A cool kitchen is ok, but may take longer.
Flour variety: Whole wheat flour will get your starter going faster because contains more natural wild yeast and beneficial bacteria.
Don’t stress: Starters are resilient. If you miss a feeding, just get back on track. You don’t have to be perfect to get a healthy starter.
If you need to pause in the middle: If you need to be away for a few days and are unable keep up with the feedings, you can put your starter in the fridge and resume the process when you have time again.
🥖 What’s Next?
Once your starter is active, you’re ready to bake your first loaf! Check out our other posts for a collection of our favorite discard recipes and our go-to bread recipe. We love zero waste baking, so each time we feed, we usually also make a discard recipe.
Keeping your starter healthy is as simple as feeding it regularly and storing it in the fridge if you’re not baking every day.