Just took my starter flakes out of the freezer and am waking them up right
now. They have been in the deep freeze for a while so I won't plan on doing
anything with them other than refreshing them for a week or two, to try to
get them balanced out. I know this is not the best way of keeping a starter
going for sure, but I wanted to see how well it could work as I maybe make
sourdough bread once or twice during the warmer months and I tend to forget
my active starter until it turns into an evil looking blob from hell. The
last time I took them from the fridge I made bread from them as soon as the
starter looked active enough. The bread seemed to come out well, though it
had been awhile since I had tasted sourdough bread to be honest. What I did
notice was that the bread seemed to get stale at a rate much closer to that
of commercially yeasted loaves, a very bad sign.

Do you think sourdough good guys are just on the endangered species list in
my "flakes" right now? I figure even if they are, if I keep it going now
that it is reconstituted it I should eventually be inoculated with something
from my kitchen, having been baking sourdough on and off for a few years
now, with four or five different strains of sourdough, and a grape vine
growing outside my window (I don't know if that really helps, but I do like
the grapes anyway). But I am curious about what actually is happening, can
the lactobacilli in sourdough completely die off in this way?

Russ Hutch
(when posting a reply in thread fashion, I would appreciate it if you please
add to the top)!