I do not bake bread over the summer and all my starters were the worse
for wear (read that as covered with mold), so I decided to start
afresh. I had Carl's and Acme (From Kenneth) frozen in flakes, so I
wasn't going back to square one, just having a good old fashioned
revival meeting.

I had also acquired another packet from a Sourdough Jack cookbook
(this was the 1972 edition) and was going to see what happened there,
too.

I set up the following two days ago, all in similar tupper-ware type
containers.

Carl's with white, unbleached
Carl's with dark rye
Acme with white, unbleached
Sourdough Jack with white, unbleached
Sourdough Jack with dark rye
(controls as follows)
Plain white unbleached
Plain dark rye

Within 24 hours, both Carl's and the Acme showed a lot of activity ,
and the both SDJs showed some activity, but not gangbusters. Plain
flours were barely anything at all - a bubble or two.

Everything was refreshed at the 24 hr mark yesterday. This morning, I
went to refresh again, the plain flours were showing very little
activity, both Carl's and the Acme were a very healthy foam. The SDJ
with white flour had exploded and popped it's top and the SDJ with Rye
was about to escape. I don't know what happened overnight, but they
both went berserkers.

I've tossed the controls and will nurse along the rest of the goop,
the tried and true Carl's and Acme, and the SDJ - and am once again
amazed at the activity from a dried packet that is 35 years old.
Granted, the proof is in the baking and I'll let these babies
stabilize for at least another week before I bake with them, but the
countertop sure is fun this weekend.

Boron