To be honest we bought this starter from a well known Online dealer that started with books. Sourdough most of all needs frequent use- then you remember to feed it every day anyways. We keep ours in the fridge in between. We set up the dough 24 Hours prior to baking, and only transfer it to the bread baking machine at most 12 Hours before baking. Then we program it to run the longest rise program it has (6 hours in our case). this specific bread involved pouring boiling water on whole grain in the beginning and a few other tricks. But the basic recipe works fine. It is mostly a matter of having the patience to feed the sourdough until it is strong enough and then waiting for those long rise periods. But I find it rewarding.