Feed with ½ cup warm water and ¾ cup flour. It rises up to a certain point and then shrinks a bit because some of the build up air escapes again. I considered writing thus: ‘Dankie vor jou vriendelike antwoord. The technique for the recipe is inspired by Jeffrey Hamelman's book Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes. Hello! Any suggestions? If you're making it from scratch, you'll need to feed it for 5 to 7 days before it’s ready for baking. Why do we maintain such a small amount of starter? I haven’t tried baking with it yet either. Stirring the mixture 2 or 3 times a day for 10 seconds helps distribute the flour, yeast and bacteria and aerates the mixture which helps development. This way you can keep a small starter and still have the full sourdough flavor. I understand quite a bit of Afrikaans and also have read some Afrikaans in the past and it is a joy to me to see how both language share so much and we would actually ne able to understand each other (partly anyway). I transform my wheat starter to rye starter. We bake (almost) every weekend so our starter is being refreshed at least each week. Also check out our tips for sourdough baking and maintaining a healthy culture: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…ough-tips/. to the dough mix The dilemma I have is that the above recipe requires 198g of sourdough and I fear using your recipe I will be well short of this mark. We can also point you in the direction of another rye bread that might be worth a look and a try (cracked rye) and which we love very much: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…rye-bread/, Hello Marieke, You can read more on this subject here: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…ough-tips/. After about 5-7 days the sourdough starter should have enough yeasts and bacteria to be used for baking. Draw a line to mark the height of the mixture with a permanent marker on the jar so you can see any activity easily. After the first 12 - 24 hours you should start seeing some bubbles, indicating that organisms are present. With this small amount of sourdough you create a fully active sourdough preferment overnight which you then use to build the final dough. Should I not refrigerate the starter at all? Cover and let sit for 14 to 16 hours at room temperature. This is no problem, you make the starter from whole wheat, spelt, bread flour etc. 2. remove from fridge – bring to room temperature – refresh – leave for at least 8 hours to bubble and THEN add Day 1: Take a small clean jar (I use a 400ml jam jar) and add 40ml of water and 40g of whole grain rye flour, stir with a clean spoon for 30 seconds.