Organic Wholemeal YQ Sourdough Starter, 50g

Bake loaves like Hodmedod Bakehouse baker Henrietta Inman. Henrietta produces very small batches of 100% wholemeal bread at the Hodmedod Bakehouse next to our Millhouse and Bean Store in Suffolk. Her sustaining loaves have a complex nutty flavour and keep beautifully.

Hodmedod Bakehouse Organic YQ Starter comes with a recipe from and care instructions from Henrietta. The starter is made with revolutionary YQ Wheat Flour milled from organic grain grown in the Deben valley in Sufolk. The YQ (Yield and Quality) wheat population bred at Wakelyns Agroforestry by Professor Martin Wolfe and the Organic Research Centre. The population is a crop of extraordinary diversity, that's emerged over time from a wide range of carefully chosen parent varieties, leading to fields of millions of genetically distinct individual wheat plants rather than the usual genetically uniform monocultures.

First made available for Sourdough September in 2022 to help as many people as possible to bake sourdough with 100% wholemeal flour, it proved such a hit and we got such fantastic reviews that we've carried on listing it.

It's a stiff starter, incredibly easy to look after and intended for storage in a cupboard or on a shelf rather than in the fridge. Perfect for delivery by post. As well as the recipe, the following care notes (pdf) will be included with your starter, along with Henrietta Inman's recipe for a Sourdough Tin Loaf.

Maintaining your starter is simple and can fit into your everyday routine. There is little waste from this method. A few days before baking, feed it twice daily for maximum activity. Depending on the number of loaves you are making bulk the starter up gradually with each feed using this ratio: 3 parts flour to 1.5 parts water and 1 part starter. An active happy starter will bubble a little and smell slightly sour.

For baking on a regular basis:
Keep your starter in your kitchen or store cupboard, not fridge. Feed twice a day, as below. Fit these feeds into your morning and evening routines. If that’s too much, once a day is also fine.

• 30g wholegrain flour
• 15g water from the cold tap – when it’s cold, use slightly warmer water
• 10g starter

Mix all the ingredients together, roll into a ball and keep in a jar

For baking once a month or less:

Keep your starter in the fridge and feed it once a week with the above quantities. Take it out of the fridge three days before baking, feeding it twice a day as above.

*Add the Sourdough Starter to your basket and complete your order as usual. The starter is produced, packed and dispatched to order every Wednesday. Orders for Wednesday dispatch must be received by 8am on the Monday.