1847 sourdough starter

I was looking around for a sourdough starter a few weeks ago. As I just mentioned, it's a harvesting and prepping for the Dark Time feeling. I was thinking that I really needed to get a sourdough starter. Even though The Babe doesn't eat sourdough willingly, both Susan the Wonderchild and I do.

I looked online for recipes. I know you can create your own, but I was after something with a little provenance that was really good and sour. And lo! I found it in Carl Griffith's 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter. This is a culture from a sourdough starter that traces all the way back to the Oregon Trail in 1847. It was in Carl's family for the last 150-some years.

Carl was a generous guy who gave sourdough starter to any and all during his life and his friends have been continuing this habit now that he's gone. You can get enough sourdough starter culture to get your own sourdough starter going for the cost of an SASE. If you're thinking you aren't going to use it often enough, here's information on how to dry or freeze sourdough culture.

I'm still on the primary growth phase of the culture; I'll be feeding it with more flour and dried potatoes tomorrow. But it's growing nicely at this point and I've a container ready for it.

1847 sourdough starter

Baking, brewing, and the God

It's almost Samhain, the time of year when the God dies and goes into the Underworld. The harvest is all in and we're going into the Dark Time between the years until the God is born again at Yule.

The thing is that, as part of this, there's a strong sense of preparation this year. I've been wanting to can, to bake, even to brew beer, something I've not done for over a decade. I sent off for a sourdough starter I'll tell you about shortly. They're making me feel better and safer, but I've been wondering why.

These things are all harvest related but I also recognize that for me, this is Samhain nesting behavior. The Goddess is life and rebirth, to be sure, so the yeast cells are Hers. Putting them to work is the God's side of things. During a vision quest decades ago, I thought that the Goddess is all things, and the God is the understanding of all things. So where the Goddess is plants, the God is agriculture. Where the Goddess is nature, the God is science. And where the Goddess is grains and yeasts, the God is baking and brewing.

So every time I do baking or brewing, the smell of yeast reminds me of the God and how the God will understand the Goddess a little better each time.

Baking, brewing, and the God

The computer bulletin

I have a functioning boot drive and I'm able to see the old C: drive, which APPEARS largely intact. I'm going to do a backup of the old C: drive in case it continues to degrade or it dies completely, then install the new software on the new C: drive.

Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahk.

The computer bulletin

Stupid joke du jour

Q. What was Beethoven's favorite fruit?
A. Ba-na-na-naaaaaaaa!!!

Stupid joke du jour

Today is not going well

I'm dealing with lots and lots of hard disk issues (for the umpteenth time), piddly bits of paperwork, and petty annoyances. Patricia used to have a sign that said:

I was ready to fight dragons, but my life has been small spiders and stepping chewing gum.

(I could have dealt with dragons....)

It's been like that today. Or maybe like this:

Today is not going well