Sourdough Starter Maintenance - Sourdough Starter Fridge Storage

Talking sourdough starter maintenance, how to put your sourdough starter on hold by putting your sourdough starter in fridge and how often to feed sourdough starter in fridge.
You've invested a good amount of time on creating a healthy sourdough starter but sometimes you need to take a break or put it on hold.

If you're tired of feeding it then sourdough starter fridge storage is an excellent option. I share how I feed my starter before putting it in the fridge and when taking it out to make sure the starter stays as healthy and active as possible.

Let's get social:

[MelissaKNorris]

Are you starting a sourdough starter (ya saw the link for my sourdough starter tutorial right?) or if you have a sourdough starter, tell me how old it is? Mine is going on 9 years old.

[tomasrodrigo]

My grandmothers starter she made at 11 years old is alive and thriving today, probably made a few thousands of breads throughout its lineage. It is 119 years old as of November this year!

[pamcampbell]

Got my starter from a relative - it's 75 to 80 years old and going strong 💖

[AnnSoutter]

My starter is 6 years old. I put equal amounts of starter, flour and water. When I am going to leave it in the frig, I make sure I use a new jar and lid. I also put the last date fed on a strip of tape on the lid. I try to feed it at least once a month if not using it. I feed mine 3 times about 12 hours apart and keep it on the counter before I bake with it.

[austinmccarthy]

I received a dry starter that has been reserved since 1910! It came from Czechoslovakia and was given to a BYU professor. He then made a bunch of copies in a dry form and gave them away. Pretty neat!

[rdotskeven]

I have a sourdough starter, it’s a 145 year old Egyptian Sourdough starter. I’ve had Oscar for about 6 weeks now. I’m going to separate it and feed some of it every day and have some in the fridge for friends or just in case something happens to my live one. Great video . . Thanks.

[ariainman]

Melissa, I do bake weekly. Leave my starter in the refrigerator....take out warm up ...bake feed and back in the refrigerator. I was given my starter from a friend September 2016 and now I have two jars....and now a small jar made with Rye flour. The Rye Flour SDS seems to be stronger. I am going to have only two jars. I do bake a lot with Sourdough Starter. It has been a great journey....my original starter is from The original Oregon Trail....and has been SUPER.

[Tree_frog-jvik]

I just got some sourdough from a friend, and she said her family has had it since about 1896 and that they brought it to alaska during the gold rush! So I think it has a very cool history behind it as well as a great flavor! ❤

[mommylearner]

Good morning ☼, Melissa! Blessings to you for a beautiful day ahead.
I started a fresh, new sourdough starter culture on Christmas Day 2018 using only flour and water. Her name is 'Noel.' {I've heard that it's good luck to give your starter a name so that family members can take an active participation in caring for the starter, e.g., "Will you please feed Noel tonight?", and so they don't accidentally discard your precious starter by washing the jar, etc.}
Anyway, I started her on Christmas Day and have been doing a combo of keeping her on the counter and feeding her daily as well as putting her in the fridge with fresh food and water for up to 9 days.
I don't have time to do a lot of baking, unfortunately, so as you can imagine, I wind up with a lot of discard. But that's OK because my dog and chickens love it! I just pour the discard into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for about 2 minutes. What comes out smells heavenly and is just the right texture and consistency to tear off a couple of pieces to toss into the chicken yard as treats, and the rest goes to the dog. (They all LOOOOVE it, by the way!)
Regardless, Noel is extremely happy, healthy, and ferments up right on schedule when she's sitting out on the kitchen counter. She also has the best perfume of all—that lovely, healthy, yeasty, fermentation smell that makes me wish I could eat oodles and oodles of bread like I could when I was a little-un.
Thank you for posting a very helpful, and simple, video for everyone. I think people are intimidated by sourdough because they watch videos or read blogs by bakers who talk about hydration percentages, baker's math/formulas, that you have to use exactly certain types of flour or amounts/ratios of flour to water (e.g., 20 grams of starter to x grams of flour and x grams of water) or your starter will die, that you can't make a starter unless you have pineapple juice, or some kind of exotic raisin/currant, that you must use a mix of this flour and that flour, filtered water, etc., etc. What bread wonkies and passionistas seem to either miss or forget is that sourdough has been around for thousands of years, and somehow those starters all managed to survive without all the precision, exotic fruits or fruit juices, flours that many people can't easily or affordably get their hands on, etc. etc. Heck, even good ol' Cookie, the chuck wagon cook, could keep his starter alive and working for him reliably, day in-day out without the benefit of a full-on kitchen or anything even resembling a kitchen. If he could do it, so can we humble, little pioneering homesteaders!
Good luck, everyone, on either starting your sourdough starter, or keeping it happy, healthy, and thriving so that it can feed you for years and years and years to come! Please do not be intimidated by it. It really is as easy as Melissa has shown it to be. And trust me, you can make and keep your starter alive with nothing more than flour and water. My happy and healthy 'Noel' is proof of that!
God bless!
Mommy Learner

[ryanmulrooney]

I was just given a starter from 1988 from a resident at my job. he has all the notes from him about the San Francisco sourdough starter. He also gave me a recipes to make pancakes oh I can't wait to try it.

[shelleyconti]

You are so helpful. I was panicking because I ordered sourdough starter, it got delivered more than a week before I was expecting it, & I thought I had killed it, in a bad way. With your help I am now able to understand more of what I have & what I need to do going forward. Hopefully you have helped me save the life of my starter. I will keep you posted.

[karenkassin]

My SD Starter is 4 years old. Thank you for sharing your videos, I learned a lot from you! It seems no matter how long I have been making SD Bread, I still learn more! You’re a wonderful teacher and coach❤️👏

[GrandmasGardenofHope]

My daughter-in-law and I started our sourdough adventure together last September. What I have learned is that sourdough and the starter are very forgiving. Sometimes I get it just right with daily or even twice daily feeding. Sometimes due to some difficult life events, my starter has been sorely neglected and left.on the counter. Even so, a little TLC was all it took to refresh and wake it up. My favorite flour for feeding my starter is rye. Blessings!

[fast_eddie]

I've only just made my third loaf ever and it's sourdough.
The starter took me two weeks to perfect using wholemeal rye flower.
50 grams water and flower, transfer 50 into new container and add 50 water and flour again for 14 days every 24 hrs. Kept it in the oven with the light on at more or less 24 degrees with the oven door ajar.
Loaf
600 grams flour
450 water
10 salt
140 starter
Bread machine made the dough.
Left the dough out covered for 2 hrs then in the fridge for 24. Out of the fridge for half an hour into a cake tin with a casserole dish on top of it preheated to 250 degrees.
Half an hour turned down at 230 degrees then 6 mins no lid on to brown. Wish I could post a picture of it, it looks amazing! Thanks for the tips and ideas, I didn't use any of yours yet but I will 😄

[NadiaM_]

Finally a helpful tip on how to maintain a starter!! Thank you!

[Frances]

Great instructions about starter feeding and maintaining. I watched your videos and decided to make it. I am on the day three stage and it is alive! Thank you.❤

[annmeloncelli]

Hi...you have made my life simple in regards to looking after my starter....I made my first laf and it was have started 2 more starters from my main gal....working great....for my son in law and friend....I'm in Australia..love your channel

[marytaelliott]

Thanks!!! I just got it a week ago and I been feeding twice a day every day... going nuts!! I just find out today that I could take a break and keep it in fridge... wish I knew!! Ha ha ha

[Joy-ymmx]

I purchased my spelt starter about a month ago that is 40 years old🤗 I know it is free of pesticides & appreciate it all the more🥰 This is the only bread that sits well with me, unless its organic sprouted grain*

[Freeze_breeze-vr]

My coworkers wife gave me a starter a couple weeks ago, I have only fed it once so far and haven’t made anything with it yet, but I plan on making something in the next week.. I’m just learning all about starters, I know nothing about them but have been watching a lot of videos to learn