Let me tell you about

a slumbering Sleeping Beauty of a sourdough starter.

In the early days of my sourdough journey I had discovered that you could dry some of the excess.

I carefully did the deed, storing in a plastic sealed box.

Recently my bread has lost a lot of its open, holey texture which to me was what I loved about sourdough.  I decided to reactivate ‘the always the bridesmaid, never the bride’ sitting waiting forlornly in the cupboard for the love of its life to come along and sweep it off its snoozing feet.  A couple of days ago I did just that.  With a pestle and mortar I gently whacked it over the head. Alright not the kiss it was hoping for from the brave knight in shining armour admittedly.  I weighed it and into the jar put an equal amount of spring water to gently rouse it from its dreams of a better life.

It sat glaring out of the jar for a day with zilch happening.  I gave it a pep talk by way of a rigorous stir, and a little food to CPR it into life.  Over the next couple of days I administered to its needs, and without so much of a gentle fart nothing seemed to stir it from its vegetative state. Until this morning when surprise, surprise it had sprung into life!

Suddenly we are cooking on gas!