Ask Allie!

Ask Allie is our advice column, where you can ask all your food-related questions to get digestible answers! No question is off limits!

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Hi Allie! My husband is a big Neapolitan pizza maker and we had a sour dough culture from Ischia, but unfortunately it went off. I was hoping to get him some dried starter again for Christmas but was a bit surprised by the $16USD shipping charge to Canada. As it is a very small item that could fit into an envelope, I was wondering if there is something that could be done to reduce the shipping charge? Thanks very much!!

— Sheila

Unfortunately, there is not. International shipping prices have been through the roof lately, but we have no control over what our government decides to charge for it. What I honestly would do is make use of the bundles so you can get 2+ cultures at a reduced rate, which will make the shipping for each individual item cheaper? I feel you on this, though. I just spent $80 on shipping fees for a relatively low-weight package (2.2kg) of yarn from Denmark. It hurts, and it hurts a lot.

Hi Allie. I have been using my dry starter I purchased from your website and am SO pleased with it. My question is; what ratio of water:flour:starter do I use to make more of my starter, as it is getting low?

— Marianne

I’m assuming you’ve ben using it dry? Here are the instructions to activate the rest of it.

Thank you for the Egyptian Starter. I am on Day 3. I have a question regarding the Red Wheat starter that was included in the package. I could not find any information about that starter on your website?

— Josef

It’s the exact same process for the red wheat as is it for the Egyptian.