Maintaining Levain

I keep two pounds of starter on hand in my fridge. I prep my starter the night before I am going to use it. If the starter has been in the fridge, I pour off any accumulated alcohol into the sink and discard half of the starter by weight, then replenish what I removed with equal amounts flour and filtered water.  

I leave it on the counter overnight. The starter usually spills out of the container overnight, so putting the container on a piece of parchment paper makes next-day cleanup easier. 

The next morning I remove a pound for baking, and add a fresh 8oz. of water and 8oz. of flour to my starter container, let it sit for 3 hours, and then I pop it back in the fridge. 
Some other helpful hints: 

•  Always maintain at least a pound of starter. 
•  If you bake every day, you don't need to refrigerate the starter; and if you use it often, you won't need to throw away any, you can use the pound you would otherwise discard. 
•  If I am going to need more than a pound, I build up my starter mass over a few days, doubling its mass each day.  I don't discard any starter when I do this, I just keep adding more mass. 
• I always discard any gray, discolored starter from the top before using it. 
• And finally, I don't discard the starter down the sink, as I'm afraid it could accumulate in the drain lines.

California Homemade Food Act

Reposted from Mark Stambler's post on LABB Meetup site:

"Governor Brown signed the California Homemade Food Act this morning [21 September 2012]. It goes into effect January 1, 2013. 

We'd like to work with the Health Department to figure out a way to make sure the law goes into effect swiftly and fairly. Please leave comments and suggestions below. Again, many thanks for all your help." 

A wonderful example of our democracy at work -- special thanks to Mark for getting the ball rolling, to the Sustainable Economies LAw Center for all their help, and to California Representative Mike Gatto for introducing and championing the legislation over the past 9 months or so!

The text of the law is available here.