Gravity & Grain

Endure the process. Trust the crumb.

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    What happens when you have one unemployed paralegal, way too much time on TikTok and a fools bravado?

    The birth of a homemade sourdough starter named after a Real Housewife (of Salt Lake City).

    It took me longer to figure out a name than it did for me to make the starter, I must have gone back and forth with 100 names before picking “Mother Lisa Barloaf” (*named after my personal favorite housewife, Lisa Barlow).

    I spent hours doing research, making sure I had the right mater…let’s be real, I saw one video on TikTok and thought “that seems pretty simple and straightforward” and went for it.

    I didn’t measure anything for ratio, I eye-ball fed from the beginning. Now that I’ve started this blog, I realize…probably not the most conducive but we’re here. And we’re doing it.

    Feb 25, 2026: The Birth of Mother Lisa Barloaf (and no I have no actual measurments, I mixed water and APF until it turned into a THICK paste. I did the flip test to confirm. ((nothing falls when you flip the container – you’re good to go – also known as “The Dairy Queen Method”.))
    Feb 26, 2026: No discard** – no changes but eyeball fed again.
    Feb 27, 2026: No discard** – there was a huge false rise over night and then bubbling was noticed so fermentation process had started.
    Feb 28, 2026: First discard – only one tablespoon. The starter completely flattened but there were small air bubbles in it. There was a lot of gluten formation noted during the feeding so though the starter looked flat on top, it had began the strand formation.
    March 1, 2026: Second Discard – around half the jar. This was the first time I scale measured in my sourdough starter journey. I did 1:1:1 at 50G of starter.
    March 1, 2026: After feeding consistency at 50G 1:1:1.
    March 2, 2026: Third discard – Noticeable increase in air bubbles during fermentation. Maintained the 50G 1:1:1 and used a scale again.
    March 3 2026: Fourth discard – used a scale to measure for feeding – photos are BEFORE feeding
    March 3 2026: Fourth discard – used a scale to measure for feeding – photos are BEFORE feeding – this is the consistency before feeding where it was more liquid and runny rather than thick and “webbed”.

    March 3 – March 7 – Mother Barloaf was rising consistently, and gave birth to her first offspring “Frodough”

    March 7, 2026 – Mother Barloaf and Frodough at 9 PM (5 hours after feeding).

    March 7, 2026 – Mother Barloaf is ready to be baked with.

    What did I learn through this whole process?

    1. Making a starter is hard work, and a lot of guessing. I know myself enough to know if I need to take a scale out and change jars daily, I will not keep up with it. Ergo, the unhinged process I went with.
    2. After day 5, it went “dead”. (Yes I did cry. And yes, I asked my chatGPT every single day if it was okay).
      • There was no noticeable rise, other than more gluten forming which I only noticed when I would mix during the feeding. This is the time I decided to start my discard and then measure the grams for ratio.
    3. I always fed 1:1:1 when using the scale. I want to say there is some fancy chef logic behind that but I just didn’t want to waste flour and water once I started the discard process.
    4. Using a scale created a more “liquid” version of a starter than I liked for Mother Barloaf so I went back to eyeball feeding.
      • It’s been just under a month of feeding daily and I can basically eyeball feed to a good ratio at this point.
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