My sourdough starter survived a week in the fridge, how is that possible?

I left my starter in the back of the fridge for 7 days while I was in Seattle for a work thing, fully expecting to dump it when I got back. My neighbor Jen texted me a pic of her feeding hers the same day and said 'just trust the hooch, it's not dead, it's sleeping' so I tried one feed with rye flour. Now it's bubbling twice as fast as before, has anyone else had a starter come back stronger after being neglected like that?

1 comments

1 Comment

emmaclark6d ago

just trust the hooch, it's not dead, it's sleeping" is basically my new motto now lol. I did the same thing last winter, left mine for almost 10 days during a move and came back to a thick grey layer on top. I scraped it off, fed it once with whole wheat and it went nuts. Like doubled in 4 hours kind of nuts. Now I actually leave it in the fridge longer on purpose sometimes, the cold seems to make it more tangy and active when it wakes up. The hooch is just the starter saying "hey, I'm hungry but I'm fine", so your neighbor Jen knows what's up. I bet yours is gonna be the best bread you've made yet, that neglect seems to kick something into gear.