Feeding the Starter

I checked my teff starter today, and it seems like there has been some action.  The mixture was definitely more spongy.  It certainly smells like there has been some action.  Seriously, the thing kind of stinks.  Though, it really didn't smell so hot when I first started the thing.  Teff must just be kind of a smelly grain.

I decided to go ahead and refresh the starter.  Once fermentation has started, you need to keep feeding the yeast, by mixing more flour in.  That way the yeast is nourished and will multiply until they are strong enough to ferment a bread dough.  Apparently, this can take several weeks.  There's not really any way to know how often I will have to refresh the starter, but as the yeast multiply, the starter will get stronger and faster-acting.

To refresh the starter, I used brown rice flour.  I wanted to get away from the teff, since when I do turn this into bread it will probably be mostly rice flour.  I simply mixed the brown rice flour with water, and stirred in the teff starter:

A refreshed teff starter

I made this a little wetter than my original starter, which had gotten pretty crusty after a few days.  Hopefully this will keep it from crusting as much.

I also got two more starters going with two different whole grain gluten free flours: millet and sorghum.

These joined the other under a dish towel on top of my refrigerator.

I should probably mention that I haven't purchased anything for this project yet, because my kitchen cabinet looks like this: