How My Ground Wheat Starter is doing and also still trying to sprout wheat 7/10/2011

This post is to update how my ground wheat berry starter is doing, and how the wheat berries I am trying to sprout are starting to sprout.  The first picture is before I fed the starter this morning and less than two hours later how it looks on the top and side of the glass container.  The starter seems to be fermenting differently than any other starter I tried to make before.  The bubbles are smaller and the starter smells a lot different than any other starter I have made.  The smell is wonderful.  I wish the starter would be ready to be able to make a dough for market, that I could try to room temperature ferment, but I am not sure if it is ready.

The wheat berries are finally starting to sprout a little, as can be seen on the picture.  The picture was taken right after I rinsed the wheat berries and then placed them back into the kitchen cupboard.  The wheat berries don’t smell at all now.  I guess I now know I was going about sprouting the wheat berries wrong the last time.

While driving around in my area the wheat and barley fields are all cut down now.  I was lucky to be able to get some wheat berries.  Now to see how the starter and sprouted wheat do when making a pizza.  This has been a nice journey so far.

Norma