Sure, and I've had lags of days, weeks, or even months in using starter. Too long and you risk mould formation, which I've recently dealt with.
In that case, I ended up starting over from some dried starter which has been sitting in the freezer since April 2020. A tablespoon of that with an otherwise typical feed (100g flour, 100g water), and about six feeds before the starter was back up to desired activity.
"Discard" is a term that's relative to your starter batch itself. There are recipes for discard, one of the simplest is a "starter pancake", which I realised was pretty much a crumpet, and indeed adding about 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp baking soda gives the bubbly form of a familiar crumpet. Fry in butter or oil in a small frying pan or using crumpet rings, about 5 minutes per side. To prepare for eating, toast about 3--4 minutes.
These may be eaten sweet (butter and jam) or savory (onions, eggs, tomatoes, etc.), as desired.
There are collections of starter discard recipes.
If you're only baking a few times weekly, storing your starter in the fridge is fine. For longer downtimes, I strongly recommend drying and freezing your starter once established. As I wrote elsewhere in this thread, make backups.
It's also possible to feed daily and store the discard for a weekly batch of discard-friendly recipes (crumpets, English Muffins, sourdough pancakes, and numerous others).
In that case, I ended up starting over from some dried starter which has been sitting in the freezer since April 2020. A tablespoon of that with an otherwise typical feed (100g flour, 100g water), and about six feeds before the starter was back up to desired activity.
"Discard" is a term that's relative to your starter batch itself. There are recipes for discard, one of the simplest is a "starter pancake", which I realised was pretty much a crumpet, and indeed adding about 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp baking soda gives the bubbly form of a familiar crumpet. Fry in butter or oil in a small frying pan or using crumpet rings, about 5 minutes per side. To prepare for eating, toast about 3--4 minutes.
These may be eaten sweet (butter and jam) or savory (onions, eggs, tomatoes, etc.), as desired.
There are collections of starter discard recipes.
If you're only baking a few times weekly, storing your starter in the fridge is fine. For longer downtimes, I strongly recommend drying and freezing your starter once established. As I wrote elsewhere in this thread, make backups.
It's also possible to feed daily and store the discard for a weekly batch of discard-friendly recipes (crumpets, English Muffins, sourdough pancakes, and numerous others).