Finally, it's Let's Make a Barm Day.

Once your seed culture is all loosey-goosey tap it down and measure out one cup or seven ounces. You won't be needing the rest. You can give it away or discard it. Flour is cheap.

I'm going back to including weights now because before, in making the seed culture, precision was not necessary. It was solely for capturing and feeding the wild yeast.

Mix in a large bowl:

7 ounces (1 cup) seed culture
16 ounces bread flour (approx. 3 1/2 cups)
16 ounces water (2 cups)

The formula is mixed when the seed culture is evenly distributed and the flour evenly hydrated. It should be wet and sticky. (Hello Genghis)

Transfer to a container twice as big as the barm mixture. A wet spatula will help with the sticky factor when transfering from the bowl.

Cover the container with plastic wrap and leave on the counter for six hours. If the plastic wrap swells during this time burp it, but stand back - it's carbonic gas and ethanol fumes. Phew!

After 6 hours the barm should look bubbly. Burp, replace the plastic wrap and put the barm in the refrigerator overnight.

While the barm will be ready tomorrow for your first batch of sour dough the full flavor of your barm will not develop until it has been fed two or three times over the next two weeks. The levening power of the wild yeast is good to go but is outpacing the bacteria which produce the acids which produce the complex sour flavors. Make a batch of bread from this young barm and then again when the flavor has reached maturity to see for yourself how the flavor of your local barm is developing over time.

Precipitate's seed culture likely went to town because she's made bread recently in her kitchen so yeast abounds. The organisms indigenous to their locale will take over any traces of usurper yeasts in any bread baker's kitchen as the barm develops over time. Just like if someone imported a San Francisco mother barm it too would be taken over by local organisms in short order.

When your barm reaches the height of local snobbery flavor you will be able to maintain its flavor with scheduled feedings.

Tomorrow ~ Sourdough bread!