Sourdough Bread - Day 6

I was SO READY to bake bread today. I've been waiting almost a week for my starter to be ready and today it was nicely bubbly and I knew it was finally ready. So I cracked open the Greens cookbook, turned to the country french bread page and read what I was to do next to have my bread ready for tonight.

I've been thwarted.

It turns out that after making a starter, it suggest that you then make a sponge, which takes a day to sour. Sigh. OK so the recipe calls for 2 cups of starter, which is all the starter I've made. To that I added 3 1/2 cups of warm water and then 4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour.


This creates a sponge batter, which will sour until tomorrow. In order to make sure it only takes until tomorrow and not longer, I followed their suggestion to place it in the oven with only the pilot light on.


Apparently tomorrow I'm supposed to remove 2 cups to replenish my starter, but since I've used up all my starter I guess if all goes well I'll take that bit and use it to build up a new starter. This is all so complicated, how did anyone manage to feed themselves before Gelson's and Trader Joe's?