@Candi Brown-McGriff This isn’t really my site. It’s one. I just kind of put together so that you can see what the website builder is capable of what it.

@Kim Cochran you can do both but nutmeg is such a powerful spice that you risk it overpowering your recipe unless you know what you’re doing I think when grinding or grating your own. Get some McCormick’s in the Little jar from Walmart just ashake or two at the most is all you need

@Stacey Avraham , thank you for pulling that over from the Stiff Starter Squad, and thanks to Candi for laying it out. Solid rundown, and most of it is exactly how I'd put it. The longer peak window, the heat resilience, the easier fridge life, all true. A stiff starter is a forgiving animal. @Kim Cochran Kim, let me add the one piece that trips people up. That "less sour, more yeast forward" part is real, but it comes from how you feed it, not just the low hydration. Fed on a schedule and used young, right near its peak, a stiff starter gives you that mild, almost sweet character. That's why it's the workhorse for brioche, panettone, cinnamon rolls. Let the same starter sit too long between feeds, though, and the density works against you. It starts banking acetic acid, the sharp vinegary kind of tang. So if mild is what you're after, the secret is rhythm. Feed it, watch it peak, use it close to the top. Candi's build is a good place to start. 3g starter, 15g water, 30g flour. That 1:5:10 puts you right at 50% hydration, and at 73 degrees you're looking at 10 to 14 hours to peak on a once a day feeding. Start there and let it tell you what it likes. Manna is a beautiful name for a starter, by the way. I saw you had a second question in there too. Let me come back for that one.

Kim, great questions, and I love that you're thinking about scale before you even have a starter going. That's a seller's mindset. First, the quantity question. You don't need to grow and maintain a giant starter. Keep your everyday starter small, 60g is fine, and build up only when you bake. The night before your 6x batch, take about 50g of your ripe starter and feed it with 300g flour and 300g water. By morning you'll have roughly 650g of active levain, enough for six Country Sourdough loaves at about 100g each with a little insurance built in. Your small mother starter stays on the counter untouched, so you never risk the whole colony on one bake. Feed big only when the bake calls for it. Cheaper on flour too, and every gram counts when you're selling. Second, flour choice. Whole wheat is a great way to start a starter. It ferments faster because there's more wild yeast and nutrition on the bran. Here's what I'd do: begin with whole wheat for the first week to get it going strong, then transition to feeding with unbleached bread flour or a 50/50 mix. A white-flour-fed starter is more predictable, and predictable is what you want when customers expect the same loaf every Saturday. The flour you feed your starter doesn't lock in the flour of your bread. Country Sourdough works beautifully off a white or 50/50 starter. Third, stiff starter. That's just a starter kept at lower hydration, around 50-60% water instead of the usual 100%. It ferments slower and leans sweeter and milder. It's a useful tool, but it's a chapter two skill. Get your standard 100% hydration starter strong and predictable first. Once you can look at it and know exactly where it is in its cycle, then play with stiff starters. One more thing: don't rush the calendar. A starter is usually reliable enough for consistent selling around week three or four, not day seven when it first doubles. Give it time to develop strength and character before you put it to work. Check the Bread Authority for starter resources too: https://skoo.ly/bread-authority