Instructions: DAY 1: In a glass or ceramic bowl, mix 2 cups flour, warm water and yeast thoroughly. Leave uncovered on kitchen counter; dont refrigerate.

(You may have received one cup of starter from a friend. If so, you do not have to make the above culture and can directly to the bread recipes, unless you want to keep the starter going. If you do, then continue with the following directions.)

DAYS 2, 3 and 4: Stir well with wooden spoon.

DAY 5: Stir and add 1 cup milk, 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Stir well. This is called "feeding the starter." DAYS 6, 7 and 8: Stir well with wooden spoon.

DAY 9: Stir and add remaining 1 cup milk, 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Stir well.

DAYS 10 and 11: Stir well with wooden spoon.

DAY 12: Ladle 1 cup starter into each of 4 containers (such as glass jars with lids) and refrigerate. Use one in a recipe, keep one for your use another time and give the two others to friends. Dont forget to include recipes (including the starter) for your friends.

appears below.

"Some of you have learned to tame the relentless feed-and-bake, feed-and-bake cycle that dooms many pots of starter. When Ann Simpson of Bridgeton makes bread, she freezes one cup of the starter for the next batch. Be sure to let the starter come to room temperature and stir well before using.

"Last fall, a friend gave some starter to Etta Taylor of St. Louis. I was really beginning to feel disenchanted with its reproductive necessities when I got a copy of "The Baking Sheet" from King Arthur Flour (in Vermont), she wrote. This gave me the courage just to keep a container of this starter in the fridge (alongside my 20-year-old regular sourdough pot!) and feed it with some sugar about every two weeks. Before I get ready to make some more bread, I double the starter and use about 2-1/2 cups of it for the bread recipe and return the rest to the fridge. Now I feel like
*I* am in control. "

NOTES : "It is my observation that having this starter around is like getting married - it is a real commitment, and it is forever. And like that institution, it gets better with age," wrote Marcia Adams, author of "Heartland: The Best of the Old and the New from Midwest Kitchens."

"Some rules to observe: Use non-metallic bowls; use wooden utensils for stirring, not an electric mixer. Leave the starter outside the refrigerator, uncovered. This is so it can pick up from the natural yeast flying about your kitchen. If the open dish bothers you terribly, it can be covered with a single layer of cheesecloth.

"Do not use the starter the day you feed it; the bread will not rise as high. Do not refrigerate it until day 12. The starter really multiplies after the fifth day, so be sure your container is large enough; I use a 10-cup bowl. I also keep a paper and pencil next to it and write down what I do when, so I dont get off schedule."

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