Wild Yeast Cultivation & Starter Preservation

The starter, not the loaf. Capturing wild yeast, keeping it alive, and banking it properly.

Booking now
Each session1 hr 30 min a session
How oftenOnce a week
Cohort10–15 per cohort
SeasonYear-round · a new cohort starts each month

What you leave with

A dehydrated heirloom starter, sealed and dated, that will still wake up in five years

A deep dive for microbial enthusiasts and home bakers. You build resilient starters from organic grains, local fruit skins and wild flora, then learn to diagnose, tune and preserve them.

One whole stage is discard recipes, which is what stops a starter feeling like a chore you throw half of away.

What makes this one worth it

  • Wild Catching, Grain Substrates & Bacterial Succession
  • Starter Health Diagnostics & Acid Balance
  • Starter Discard Recipes & Zero-Waste Baking
  • Dehydration, Long-Term Banking & Revitalisation

What is included

  • All 4 sessions of the 4-week cohort — 6 hours of instruction
  • A place held for you for the whole run, in a cohort of 10–15
  • Every piece of equipment listed below, provided on the day
  • Your instructor, and their attention in a group this size

What to bring

  • Water, and something to eat if you want it
  • Nothing else — the kit is provided

How it runs

Once a week · 1 hr 30 min a session

Frequency
1x / week — 90 minutes a session
Session length
1 hr 30 min
Each month
4 sessions, about 6 hours
Cohort size
10 – 15 participants
Where
Fermentation lab / outdoor botanical garden pavilion
Level
All Levels
Commitment
Monthly — stay as long as it is worth it

What you cover, in rotation

The group works through these in order and then begins again on fresh ground. Join at whatever stage it is on — nothing here assumes you were there for the last one, and nothing runs out — or drop in for a single session if that is all you can manage.

  1. Stage 1Wild Catching, Grain Substrates & Bacterial Succession
    • Capturing environmental wild yeasts from organic rye, wheat and grape skins.
    • The pH drop from Leuconostoc bacteria to beneficial Lactobacilli.
    • Establishing daily feeding protocols and temperature control.
  2. Stage 2Starter Health Diagnostics & Acid Balance
    • Diagnosing sluggishness, acetone smell, hooch separation and mould.
    • Modulating acetic against lactic acid for tangy or mild profiles.
    • Testing float buoyancy and CO2 production rates.
  3. Stage 3Starter Discard Recipes & Zero-Waste Baking
    • Culinary uses for active discard: crackers, scallion pancakes, crumpets, waffles.
    • Incorporating discard into sweet pastry and flatbread.
    • Sharing and swapping starter lines among the cohort.
  4. Stage 4Dehydration, Long-Term Banking & Revitalisation
    • Dehydrating starter flakes for multi-year dry storage and gifting.
    • Freezing and cold-storage revival protocols.
    • Creating heirloom starter jars with botanical wax seals.

4 sessions in the cycle, then it begins again on new ground.

Who leads it, and what is provided

Led by Food microbiologist or fermentation specialist.

Culture diagnostics, microscopy demos, and discard culinary demos.

On the table when you arrive

  • Weck glass jars
  • pH test strips
  • Organic heritage flours
  • Starter dehydrators

When it runs

August 2026

M
T
W
T
F
S
S

Runs Not running

Saturday 8 August

  • 10amup to 15 guests

Usually runs Saturdays.

This is the operator’s schedule, not live seat availability. We check the date with them and come back to you — nothing is booked or paid for here.

You might also like

Fruit fermenting in a glass jar with a clip lid.
Booking now

Farms, Food & Fun

Botanical Fermentation & Wild Sourdough

Saturdays of wild yeast, lactic acid and live fire — and a starter culture you take home alive.

$205 per monthOnce a week · 3 hr a session
Chickens roaming the grass in front of a wooden barn.
Booking now

Farms, Food & Fun · Family-friendly

Regenerative Farming & Animal Husbandry

Saturday mornings of real farm chores: compost, goats, cheese and the harvest.

$155 per monthOnce a week · 3 hr a session

More to do in San Diego

Everything else you can do in San Diego.

All 77 activities
A painter at an easel outdoors on a grassy bank.
Booking now

Arts and Crafts

Nature Landscape & Wildlife Painting

One canvas, outdoors, worked session by session until there is a landscape on it with an animal in the middle.

$190 per monthTwice a week · 1 hr 30 min a session
Hand planes and chisels hanging on a workshop wall.
Booking now

Arts and Crafts

Traditional Woodworking & Joinery

From rough hardwood to a jointed stool you could stand on for the next forty years.

$225 per monthOnce a week · 3 hr 30 min a session
Hands centring wet clay on a moving pottery wheel.
Booking now

Arts and Crafts

Wheel-Thrown Pottery & Ceramic Glazing

Centring, pulling, trimming and glazing — clay to finished stoneware at your own wheel.

$190 per monthOnce a week · 3 hr a session

$100 per monthNext departure Sat 8 Aug

Check availability