This is the comment thread for the Breadtopia blog post originally published here:
Looks wonderful. Red Fife is a very good heirloom wheat and I’m glad it was saved. A while back I got both Red Fife and Turkey Red another heirloom from Breadtopia and baked them side by side to compare both turned out good but the Red Fife won by a slight margin.
Hi ! Wanted to let you know about a source for terrific flour, including Red Fife. Check out Anson Mills, ansonmills.com.
Just got around to making my first loaf of Red Fife Sourdough using your recipe,Turned out that me and the wife had to put this one at the head of list of our bread making. Unbelievably great flavor & texture. Now just need to double the recipe. Thanks for sharing your recipe so we can enjoy this delicious bread. Thomas in KY
So glad you and your wife enjoyed the bread! Red fife is so tasty. I’ve used it in some savory calzone-ish things, too, and i think it’s the perfect wheat for that also.
Hi I am interested in making this recipe but being a bit of a novice I do not see ant sourdough starter listed in the recipe? I do see that there listed “75g leaven, all purpose flour, floating (1/3 cup)” but I am a bit baffled by this. can I have an explanation please.
Thanks
Eric K
Leaven is just another word for starter - sorry about that! I hope this didn’t hold up your baking too much. I
I kinda thought that was what it was. Thanks for the quick response.
I’m just getting back into bread baking and am wondering if I can use my lodge dutch oven for this recipe? It is 5 quart with a lid - is it too big? I also have a 3 quart one that I could use. Thanks for all your info on this site!
I use a 5qt. The loaves don’t get support from the sidewalls but it’s certainly small enough for trapping moisture and pre-heating at the same pace. Enjoy your return to baking! Glad you’re finding the site helpful.
Looks delicious!
Thank you Melissa for the recipe! 
Melissa what size rectangular basket did you use? Will be trying the 40 percent recipe…I have the breadtopia rectangular basket…thanks
I used this basket
The round or oblong should work for that size dough too.
Beautiful!
I agree with Leah! And i imagine the flavor and aroma are as amazing as it looks 
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Hi Melissa,
Thanks for sharing this recipe. It turned out to be a bit of a disaster for me, unfortunately. There are so many beautiful pics of other’s success, I had high hopes for this - I’m not exactly sure where I went wrong. I’ve had a lot of success with my starter with sourdough recipes from King Arthur’s website, but in this case I think I may have let my starter ripen too long (about 18 hours at room temperature). Also, I don’t have a baking vessel so I used a pre-heated cast iron pan uncovered at 475F for 35min. I think it was probably too hot, I ended up with a very tough crust with a moist interior. Also, I think I used too much bran in the proofing bowl - I substituted for ground fibre cereal. It’s edible and tastes good, but clearly the texture is all wrong. I’d like to try this recipe again, do you have any advice on what I should do differently for someone without a baking vessel? Thank you 
-Matt
Matt,
I’m glad your bread is still tasty. Toasting each slice can solve gumminess, also cutting off the tough crust etc. Hopefully the next bread works out better.
Unless you fed your starter a LOT of flour and water (maybe 1:3:3 starter, flour, water) and kept it in a cold room, 18 hours probably did exhaust the food supply.
Do you have a baking stone or steel? That info will help me give you a recommendation on how to bake the next loaf.