I cannot figure out what is going on with my starter. I forgot to feed it one night and after two days it had mold. I figured that happened from going too long between feeds. Fine. Scraped off the top, took some fresh starter from near the bottom of the jar, and put it in a clean jar, fed as normal. I've been feeding it pretty regularly every night for several days and it seems pretty happy (getting bubbly pretty reliably after a few hours etc) but for some reason it is still growing fuzzy mold on the starter that clings to the insides of the jar after only 24 hours! I use a clean jar everyday, I assume my utensils are relatively clean, etc. The starter seems otherwise healthy. Is it just infected with mold spores? Should I just trash the whole thing?
The fuzzy stuff you see is merely the top of the mold organism. The rest of it has presumably colonized your starter, so you're probably stuck with it now. I'd suggest starting all over again with a new culture (maybe the pineapple juice method, though I've never tried that myself).
I know in our MarketSafe course (for people who sell food products at temporary markets) the instructor cautioned us about mold 'on the surface' of foods, saying you can't just cut it off and keep the rest.
Better stay in safe side...
You'll feel better about the whole situation. :)
You didn't mention what was in your starter but I'd start over and get yourself some whole grain dark rye flour and go 50/50% rye and all-purpose UNBLEACHED white flour. Pick a number... 50 grams total weight is nice. Then add 50 grams of BOTTLED water. Now you have 100 grams of starter! Stir until no lumps. Cover with a paper towel and rubber band and let it sit on your counter for 24 hours.
After that, throw half of that starter out (50 grams) and you're left with the remaining 50g. To that, add 25g rye/AP flour and 25g bottled water.
Repeat for a week and you should be good to go.
Murph
Some make really nasty toxins like aflatoxin which is the most potent natural occurring carcinogen!