08/21/2026
SNEAKY STOLEN STARTER from a scrap of paper?YEAH BUOY!
In July 2026, WSU Breadlab hosted the Grain Gathering. I was lucky enough to attend a wood firing class by Richard Miscovich (those onions!) and during his presentation, a tub of gorgeous, fragrant starter made its way around the class.
My first thought was to tear the bottom edge off a recipe sheet we were handed, and I smeared a bit of the silky blonde paste onto the scrap of paper and folded it up into my shirt pocket where it remained the rest of the weekend.
When I arrived home from the adventure, I dropped this paper scrap into a jar of water, let it sit for a day, and filtered out the paper fibers with a very fine metal mesh.
I added 50% BF and 50% fresh milled rye from Heartland Craft Grains , and 24 hours later I have a beautiful, vigorous starter getting used to TN in the wretched summertime.
We recommend pilfering starter every chance you get. It’s a fun way to meet fellow miscreants and the chances of being caught are very low (but never zero). The punishment for being caught is equally low stakes unless you abscond with an entire large tub in which case, flay and flog, but why would you do that. Don’t do that.
Looking forward to baking with this sneaky stolen starter. Thank you Richard!
