You can ask for some of an established starter from someone, but it is very easy to start you own.

Just water, flour, container. You do not need boiled potato skins, unwashed chili stems, organic grape skins, eye of newt, or tears from a virgin. You can use those of course (never tried newt or virgin, they probably work too) the flavor will be different though.

Any flour will work, wheat, teff, sorghum, millet, buckwheat, on and on. It it’s starch you can ferment it.

It may seem intimidating at first, but it’s pretty easy once you start playing around with it.

You can use tap water with chlorine/ chloramine, rain water, bore water that is heavy in iron/ silicates/ calcium. Nothing special needed there.

When I want to make a new starter I just grab a jar, fill it 1/3 full with whatever flour, add water to somewhere below the top, put the lid on, give it a shake, then forget about it for a few days. 3 or 4 days later (depending on what flour was used, and what temperature the room is) I pour half of it out to use in crêpes or something, no need to toss it. Add more flour and water, shake, wait. If you see bubbles or clear liquid (Hooch, alcohol formation on top) it is working. Hooch can be shaken back in, no need to pour it off. Keep doing those steps for anywhere from 3 weeks to 2 months (lots of variables here) and you have a happy starter.

Once established you can freeze your starter. Activity will be slower of course when you use it again. You can also dry it on baking paper or plastic wrap, that works fine for about 10 days if you need to travel with it.

As Anthony Bourdain related in Kitchen Confidential, ‘feed the bitch’. But also don’t stress about it.

Good luck, it will work out, if you find virgin tears let me know because I want to try them.