The first two weeks
Flour, water, a jar and a spoon. What to feed it, how warm to keep it, and how to tell a starter that is genuinely working from one that is only bubbling out of politeness.
Logan Square, Chicago · a digital guide
Sourdough Starter Field Guide
How to keep a sourdough starter alive in a home kitchen — the jar on the counter, the feeding rhythm that survives a working week, and the plain steps for the days it goes quiet. Written between bakes by the baker at Crumb & Ember, Logan Square, Chicago.
A digital guideA home oven, a normal week
What the guide covers
From the first jar to a starter you can bake with
It stays with the questions a home baker actually asks, in roughly the order they arrive. Ordinary flour, a home oven, no proofer and no mixer.
The rhythm that lasts
A feeding schedule that fits around work and sleep, what the jar should look and smell like before it goes into dough, and how much of it one loaf really needs.
When it goes quiet
A sharp smell, a grey liquid on top, a slow week in a cold kitchen. What each sign usually means, and the plain steps that bring a neglected starter back.
Written for someone who has never kept a starter, and for someone whose last jar died at the back of the fridge.
The guide
Sourdough Starter Field Guide
A short guide to read on your phone, or to print and keep beside the oven. It is a guide about starters: the bread and pastry are their own thing, ordered through the weekend lineup, and the baker confirms every request herself.
Always free
What stays open to everyone
- The full weekend lineup — every bread and pastry, with its price and what is in it.
- The Saturday and Sunday pickup windows, and the kitchen door the orders are collected from.
- The preorder request form. Send it and the baker replies; she confirms every request herself.
- A question about the bread, answered by the person who baked it.
None of that depends on the guide.
Meanwhile, the oven is on
This weekend’s bread
The lineup shifts with the weather and the flour. See what is baking this Saturday and Sunday, then send the baker a request with the pickup window that suits you.