Sourdough bakers- a challenge for you!

[beccathebaker]

In two weeks I am moving from Boston to Berkeley California and I know that I want to bring my starter (it's almost three years old now). I am wondering what the best way to transport it is. Right now it's in a sealed tupperware container. I just know how weird the airpressure gets in a plane and I am so afraid that it will somehow burst !!
I am definately going to carry it on, but I don't know if I should change the container or hold it in my lap during the take-off etc..
This is so funny, but it is like a baby to me and I would be devastated to lose it:)
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
thanks

Becca

[kwormann]

Beth will be a great person to answer this. She moved her starter from CA to TX!

[Beth]

Indeed, I did. I fed my starter an extra time to have even more for insurance purposes. I froze half of it in a large (1 gal) ziploc freezer bag. I had read you could freeze your starter during periods of non-use, but hadn't done it, so I also wanted some "live" to carry with me as I had done when visiting my family (there was a thread about things we'd travel with and I forgot about this one! :o ) I put the other half in another gallon ziploc freezer bag and fed it before leaving so it had food to grow on. I figured the forzen one was okay as it was.

When it was time to go, I put each of those two bags inside another gal. ziploc bag and they went into a tote. I kept them under my seat and pulled them out during the flight to "burp" the bags. Both the yeast growing and the altitude will casue the bags to swell, so just open a corner and squeeze out most of the air once or twice. I found that the floor of the plane stayed cool enough that the starter was fine between CA and TX (plus an hour or two car and airport time on either side). If you're not sure, take a little 6-pack sized cooler, even stick one of those blue ice things in with it and you should be just fine.

BTW, when we got to TX, both of mine were fine. I can't remember, but I think I just mixed them back together and made pancakes for everyone the next morning. Let me know if you still have any questions. You should make it without problems though.

[RunnerKim]

Once when I was a kid and flying to visit a relative my Mom gave me starter that she'd dried. Now I'm not quite sure how she did that, but I recall it worked fine when re-constituted...

Kim

[Curleytop]

This how I got my starter, from a bb buddy on the old Prodigy bb!
She dried the starter and sent it to me by snailmail. This was 5 or 6 years ago, and I still am using it.
To dry starter:
On a piece of waxed paper put a shallow layer of starter on it.
LET IT DRY at room temp. When dry, use a morter and pestle and grind it up into a meal. Now you have starter to give away!
I took some of my own starter, processed it as above, and put it in a foodsaver bag in the freezer. This is in case my starter dies!:rolleyes: This is the way you can buy starter in the store.

[pammy]

Thank you all so much for helping me figure out my Christmas gift querie (inadvertently, of course;) ). After reading the thread on homemade Xmas gifts, I started thinking about yummy sourdough bread. I thought it would make a nice gift basket to bake a bunch of bread, put a loaf in each basket lined with a pretty linen napkin with some honey, preserves, other bread spreads and to also give the person some starter and a recipe to make their own. I was just stumped on how to package the starter, now I will dry it and put it in a pretty jar! Thanks guys!

[vbak]

I must confess that I tried to make sourdough bread and it was a giant doorstop!!:mad: The batter bubbled almost immediately when I made the starter, but when I proofed the starter for baking it didn' get all bubbly. Good luck with your starter. Vicky