The night before, in a large bowl, mix all the levain ingredients, lightly cover and let sit overnight (12 hours).
Add all the dough ingredients to the levain and mix thoroughly until no lumps or dry flour remains. The dough will be sticky. Cover and let rest for thirty minutes.
Stretch and fold the dough on all four sides, then let sit for another thirty minutes.
Stretch and fold again, then let sit for 6-8 hours (depending on temperature in your house, see above) or until roughly doubled in size and puffy.
Line a quarter-size sheet pan with parchment paper. Dump the dough on a heavily floured surface and split into four sections. Shape all four sections into four large buns (directions above), heavily flouring the surfaces of each bun, and set on the prepared sheet pan.
Cover and let proof for 1.5 hours, then place the covered pan in the fridge overnight (12 hours).
The next morning, preheat the oven to 400F while you tie up the buns.
Place your kitchen strings in the bowl of oil and submerge them entirely. Pull out the buns from the fridge.
Squeeze the oil out of three of the strings. Carefully lift one of the buns (it may slightly deflate but just tenderly hold it from underneath), place the three strings under where the bun sat like a 6-spoke wheel so they cross in the center and the string halves are even.
Set the bun back down so it’s centered on the string wheel spoke, then tie up the strings on top (I tie up the three strings separately).
With scissors, cut off the excess string, leaving just a quarter-inch nub of string.
Repeat with the rest of the buns.
If you like the floured and scored look, sift flour over the buns after their strings are on, and then score with a razor blade or sharp knife as you wish (I detailed how to do the wheat scoring above).
Bake for 45 minutes, then let cool for an hour. Then you can cut the strings and remove them. You can also brush off any excess flour from the top if there's too much.
If you want to add stems, you can use parts of a cinnamon stick, or parts of a dried umeboshi plum as I did. Just cut it into pieces that look like a stem and stick it in the center of each bread. The less perfect the better. Enjoy!