Cultivate Your Own Wild Yeast Starter

Did you know that the commercial yeast found in stores is only a single strain of yeast, when countless varieties exist in your environment already? Why pay for that manufactured product? Instead, you can have a richer, more diverse culture when you harvest your own yeast from nature. Wild yeast is abundant, easy to cultivate, tasty, and healthy. It lends a terrific flavor to all your baked goods, and may even reduce food sensitivities in people who have trouble tolerating grains and wheat, since it's less refined, unprocessed and loaded with so many different varieties. You might have a friend with a wild yeast starter, in which case, ask for a scoop and begin feeding it! But if you want to start from scratch, Roe Sie, from the King's Roost, teaches you how to catch wild yeast in your own kitchen with a bit of flour and some water (or pineapple juice!) to start your own colony from scratch. It's easy and fun.

[ZenaBattaglia]

I learned how to make starter from my Grandmother at the age of twelve, I still use it today 48 years later. I keep it in my refrigerator and feed it once a week unless I'm going to use it. It's my best reminder of a wonderful woman.

[Dsany]

Have you ever imagined 5 years ago when you were recording this that during the corona virus pandemic your video will be such a blessing! 👍. Thank you for the informative video.

[NilsAlbertsson]

I made mine a few days ago, but it became so aggressive it broke out of the fridge and attacked the kids. I managed to pull them free and we boarded the kitchen door up, trapping it inside.... I can hear it going through the cupboards, no doubt looking for food or weapons... Any suggestions?

[keepruvthknight]

From reading comments on this and other videos, it looks like many people are going back to their roots. Wouldn't that be a great thing for society to come out of this pandemic a lot closer to the earth?

[thatbearlife]

Thank you! So many videos get too complicated, yet at the same time, don't cover all that you've covered. This was perfect, simple and thorough.

[OMGitsTerasu]

Dude, I started my starter with your method


ITS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL

[onism]

add raisons and water in a jar, put it in a dark room and shake well once a day for a week, take all raisons out after week and add flour to the liquid remaining. that's a way to make natural yeast

[missburgundy]

I actually started growing my own yeast after watching your video, now i am on day 5, not as much bubbles as you have tho. I find your technique very straightforward and concise 🙂 It would be really really great, if you also post a video on making 100% wholewheat bread.

[sazji]

It’s been interesting to watch different videos about this. Some make it so complex and others are really simple. And they all seem to work.

[michaelh]

I discovered a good way to make my active starter really grow and become bubbly after a feeding. What I did is not feed my active starter for two days (48 hours), and then when I did feed it I gave it some good sprouted rye flour. The starter then tripled in height! Starving the starter for a couple of days made it real hungry and when I fed it it really grew. It never happened like that when I fed it every 24 hours. My starter is a couple of months old and I have tried a number of variations to get it to rise and bubble.

[StrangeLittleGarden]

one pandemic later, we find the diy community thriving

[Larry]

I've seen some Eastern European bakers with yeast cultures that are hundreds of years old.

[ralucadudescu]

This young, handsome man is a treasure in times of corona crises, when yeast becomes a "supermarket ghost".

[tracyoliver]

Can't recommend this recipe enough. I have a lovely yeasty starter that made lovely crumpets. The only thing I did differently was use an old fashioned netty dishcloth instead of lid

[signalfire]

Martha Stewart once visited a famed bread bakery in NYC - she asked the baker 'where do you get your yeast? and he just gestured around at the ancient brick walls; 'from everywhere, from the air.' I've never forgotten that; the trick to the flavor of his famous bread was the several day rise on the dough. There's a man (I think in Israel) who has a yeast museum; he has collected yeast from all over the world including the pyramids and tombs; he can make a bread out of the yeast that the Pharoahs may have used.

[helpfulnatural]

I started this recipe recently using whole wheat flour and pineapple juice for the first mixture. On the second day, I added more w.w. flour and switched to distilled water. On day 3 I discarded half of the mixture, then fed it more w.w. flour and water. I continued with this routine on day 4. On day 5 I finally got some yeast action! My starter had doubled in size and was full of bubbles. Have my fingers crossed that this will continue and I'll be able to use it for baking soon!

[repanurge]

I bought a 5 lb bag of dry yeast from Costco about 10 years ago. It's been kept in a sealed container in the refrigerator all this time. Made ciabatta bread with today. Still works fine.

[bradmiller]

ULTRA pro tip; start with 1/2 cup of raisins in water/pineapple water. will only take two days, remove the raisins and add flour. Raisins contain more wild yeast than flour alone.

[howey]

My mother still has the sour dough my granmother started in the early 70s.

[alisonhendry]

Loving this!!!! I am doing it tomorrow! I have some starter in my fridge from last July from my buddy’s starter from Cleveland, Ohio, but will see what happens if I try it in Houston, I love this method. Doesn’t involve three cups of flour and too much tossing out. Who wants to toss anything right now. You can’t replace it! So happy I bought the twenty pound bag of flour...