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Tenuous link you may think, but when I started reading up on sourdough, and wild yeasts, starters, fermentation etc. it all seemed very familiar. It's basically the lambic of the bread world.
Plus there wasn't food section, so forgive me if this is in the wrong forum.

I started to make a starter for a French rustic bread on Saturday. Basically you make a small amount of dough from wholemeal flour and water. Cover and keep warm for a couple of days. Scoop out the moist inside, dispose of the rest, add more flour and water, and keep for a couple of more days.
I'm at the stage now where I should see something happening (the dough should rise), but there's defenitely some fermenting smells coming from it.
After that, you build it up with more flour and water, set some aside for the starter for your next loaf, and make bread from the dough.

There's a good link here[/url:1p3tss09] about making San Francisco sourdough. I hope to try this one next week. They seem to make the starter the consistency of a batter, as opposed to the French recipe I'm making now. Once you have this starter, like beer yeast, it can be kept in the fridge for a month. Feeding it with more flour and water will prolong the life.

If anyone is interested in cooking you might like to give it a go.

Made some similar to that my self turned out good, can also add some crushed grapes that wild yeast on them also works out good

My other half loves sourdough, and often bemoans the fact that the choices of breads in Ireland seem to be fairly limited (unless you want to pay an arm and a leg in town). I'll be interested in how easy you find this. Don't you keep a bit of dough as a starter for your next one too?

First attempt: nothing happened, and eventually green mold spots appeared, so I binned it.

This weekend I started the San Fran. version. My plan was to pick up some organic flour, but I never got around to it. There are certainly some fermentation smells, and a few bubbles of activity. I'm feeding it every 12 hours at the moment, and will see how it goes over the next couple of days. I read about the grapes thing, and if this is unsuccessful I may try that next.
You can also buy sourdough to get you started.

The idea is to feed it to make a starter before you're ready to make the bread, then keep half for the next time, and make the dough using the other half.

The big health food store on Georges street (down to nature I think), is know selling Sourdough yeast in dry form I bought some but have yet to try it

Down to Earth[/url:207ejcq9]. Today's piece of Dublin health food store trivia is that it's run by Colin Farrell's dad.