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Sourdough baking
I got a sourdough starter, what now?
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The starters life

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Help I have an unhealthy starter

When is my starter unhealthy

When the starter in the fridge has separated water, or even the water has become blue, we can call it unhealthy. Or even if you leave it in the fridge for more than 2-3 weeks we can guess that it is unhealthy.

Shall i throw away an unhealthy starter

A starter pretty much never dies, but as said it becomes unhealthy. To get it back in shape you need to feed it regularly for some consecutive days, before it can go back to the procedure of feeding once a week or more, and stay in the fridge.
When you have an unhealthy starter you can take a new glass, and a small piece of the starter and feed that piece. Give it time to get bubbly. When the starter is peaking, feed it again so that you can train it properly.

Is there a way to avoid unhealthy starter

You can freeze a part of your starter to make sure that you can train it quicker. Just take out a couple of spoons from an active starter and freeze it. It make take some time to get the frozen starter active again, but it can shorten the process.
You can spread the starter out on a baking board and dry it in the oven. This way you will have starter crumbles you can leave in your cupboards and add to the mix when creating a new starter. It would be as simple as mixing flour and water, and adding some dry starter.

Examples of never able to die

We have had a big glass of starter in the fridge for over 6 months. Did not touch it and it was a very blue water on top. We look at this as a protective layer. The only thing that is important to notice, is if there are any mold anywhere. That is not a good sign. But if you have an air tight box or glass jar, this should not be a problem.
Our starter was able to become active, even after 6 months in the fridge. We needed to feed it for a couple of days until we could get back to the normal routine. But it had not died and we did not need to get a new culture from someone or create from scratch.
So dont be afraid of leaving your starter in the fridge. Worst case look at
Get rid of some starter
⁠
for some tips to not have to throw away things, and make the feeding a fun activity.
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