Got Injera? (Making the Starter)

I made my first batch of injera nearly three years ago -- an experience that started with great excitement, and ended with me scraping the entire batch into the bin.  I've tried so many recipes since then, experimenting, adapting and analyzing like some sort of mad scientist, and have settled on the following one as the closest that I can get to the real thing.  It's a basic, classic sourdough starter, so it's not like I've come up with something brilliant here.  In any case, this injera gets five golden stars from my Ethiopian kids, so I'm sticking with it.  Here it is, in all its spongy glory:

Notes:
-  I made my starter with wheat flour, and once it was well established, began using teff in place of the wheat flour.
- I've kept this starter going for about six months now, and it's reached the point where I can abuse it terribly, yet it remains absolutely lovely and reliable and shows no signs of slowing down.
-  If, during this process, your starter begins to get little spots of mold on the surface, just remove them with a spoon. 
-  My starter looked a little lank and dead on the ninth day, so I added 1 Tbsp of flour and a pinch of sugar to help it along.
- You'll need a good container with a lid -- I use one of those 7 cup Anchor glass storage containers with a plastic lid.  Now that my starter is well established, I stick the lid on tightly -- but during the beginning stages, I left the lid ajar to let air into the container.

Day 1
1/4 cup white flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 yellow potato, scrubbed and cut into two or three pieces

Thoroughly mix flours and water together.  Stir in the potato, cover loosely and let stand on the back of your counter.  Now, leave it alone!

If you're one of those people who remembers to water their plants, cleans out the fridge regularly and never misses a birthday, you're golden.  If you're like me, you might want to write the date on the lid so you can keep track of when to feed your starter.  I actually marked my calendar with the dates that I had to deal with the starter -- it worked.

Day 2
Do nothing.

Day 3
Remove the potato pieces and discard.  Add nothing.

Day 4
Add:
2 Tbsp warm water
2 Tbsp flour (I used whole wheat for each feeding)
You may see some bubbles starting to form in the starter, and it should have a nice yeasty sort of smell to it.

Days 5 to 9
Leave it alone.  Check your starter every now and then, removing any mold you find. 

Days 10 through 15
This is when you really start ramping up the feedings.  I fed my starter twice per day, in the morning and at night. For each feeding, add:
1 Tbsp warm water
1 Tbsp flour
Stir in well, cover and let it sit until the next feeding.

Day 16 and thereafter
At this point, your starter should be strong and ready to use.  I began to convert my starter to a teff starter around this time -- simply begin using teff in place of the wheat flour. 

If you're not going to be using your starter regularly, you can either keep feeding it every few days (with 1 or 2 Tbsp each warm water and teff) or store it in the fridge.  For a while, when we weren't feeling like eating injera, I kept mine in the fridge, sealed tightly.  I fed it every two weeks, and it was perfectly fine.

This sounds like an awful lot of work, but if you've ever used sourdough before (and who hasn't had one of those Amish friendship breads passed on to them?) you'll know that it's not complicated at all.  In fact, it's just a matter of marking the feeding times on your calendar.

Tomorrow:  using your starter to make injera!