I have been having all the same problems. I attempted some sourdough pancakes which were fantastic. However I made the bread dough the other day and baked it in the oven today. The flavor is mild but tasty and didnt rise very much. The only thing I dont think i have is enough "wild Yeast" floating about my house and neighborhood to successfully complete this recipe. I want to try to add a small pinch of yeast from a package to see if it gets better. What do you think?

Very happy for you I'm glad it worked. Hopefully I will have some time to make some bread dough this week.  I added a small watered down pinch of redstar yeast to half the starter and so far so good. The good smell is still there and it has a very nice fresh looking starter dough. We'll see I post a few pics of the dough before and after the rise. Wish me luch

Capital FAIL for me too. I finally got around to baking my bread and although my starter and dough looked and smelled good it still did not raise as much as I think it should. it also had a very extreme salt flavor. I tossed the starter and the bread. The only thing I can consistantly make is sourdough pancakes and waffles Sooooo Good. My Wife and I also expermented with some sourdough cupcakes the other night and only had 2 recipes that came through for us (our own). As for the bread i think im going to forget the venture all together for the summer. I think with my AC running 24-7 the hummidity is gone in my household air. Im going to boot this project back up during the winter months and see if  cant get any better at this.

Oh another question? What kind of oven do you use (gas, electric)

I just set my first loaf to rise in the fridge with this starter. I assume we can refrigerate the liquid starter and use later. I poured my leftover into a smaller jar, covered and refrigerated. Most starters keep up to two weeks untended in the fridge, so I'll take out 3/4 cup the night before I want to make a new loaf and feed it a tablespoon or so just to wake up the yeasty beasties, then mix the dough in the morning as usual. I'll come back and let you know how it goes.

I'll return tomorrow and report on how my first loaf turned out as well.

I'm curious what others have done with the rest of the starter dough ball--the one from which we were told to pinch a tangerine-size piece to make the liquid starter. I'm going to separate mine into more tangerine-size balls and freeze them, since we don't eat enough bread to use those up quickly. Has anyone tried that? If so, how did it turn out for you?

matt7215 is right.  I havent bought any sour bugs in years, just keep reusing.

Blending and/or Solera is the way to go.  I wouldnt do it any other way.

VB, tell me about the sour dough starter.
Ive never made sour dough bread but Ive heard about the tradition of feeding the starter or mother for years and passing it along.

Recipe sounds interesting, let us know the details and results of this sour.