> Roy Basan posted a link a couple of years ago. It was a
> technical paper covering the different microbial populations
> in a number of flour sources along the northern
> Mediterranean. Seemed to me that every food-shed had it's own
> critters. It also seemed to me that the critters were, for
> the most part, slight variants of one another. So I suppose
> the answer is: How different are the source flours?

Ah, thank you! That's the kind of thing I was looking for. I'll read the
paper later tonight.

As for my flours, I'm not sure where they're from. I grind my own from bulk
commodity organic grain, so they could be from just about anywhere.


> On a practical level... it seems to me the major variables
> are storage environment and refreshment cycle... since the
> critters ultimately self-select based on a slew of variables
> like hydration, temperature, buffering material, availability
> of nutrients, etc...

That's kind of what I figured, myself. Thanks.

> I've been very happy keeping very firm starter at room or
> cellar temperatures. You might try that and see whether you
> feel it is different from the wet stuff typically stored in
> the refrigerator....


I keep my pretty firm in the fridge, but will often make it wet (even weight
of water to flour) when I get it going for a bake. How often do you feed
your cellar starter?

--
Jeff