Day 1

Today we begin the glorious adventure of cultivating the starter culture!

The materials I used were;

• 1 small glass bowl
• 1 tablespoon measurer
• a kitchen cloth
• rubber bands (optional)
• flour mix
• lukewarm water
• my hand (for mixing)

To get the lukewarm water I mixed cold bottled water and boiling water at a 2:1 ratio respectively, or until the water mixture was slightly warm to the touch. Not too hot and not too cold. From there I took 2 tbsps of my flour mix and added it into my small bowl. Then with my clean hands and my tbsp measure, I began to add the water gradually while mixing with my bare hand. Using my left hand to add the water with the tbsp measure and my right hand to mix. I continued to mix until the consistency was that of pancake batter, I made sure to mush out any clumps of flour to make the consistency of the flour and water slurry as smooth as possible. I then took the kitchen cloth and placed it over the bowling and used a rubber band to secure the cloth in place. I then placed the bowl in a nice shady spot in my kitchen to ferment. I will come back to it in 2-3 days.

My clean bare hands are use to inoculate/introduce the bacteria and yeasts from my hands and my kitchen into the slurry. Say if I were to wear gloves or totally avoid all contact between my hands and the mixture none of the necessary microbes needed to start the yeast cultivation would be introduced into the mixture. Thus, not allowing the experiment to continue.