How To Turn A Mason Jar Into A Fermenting Crock

Welcome to our guest blogger Erica Strauss who joins us from her blog NW Edible Life, one of our favorite urban gardening/simple living blogs.  I’ve admired Erica’s writing and work from afar but when I saw her post on using reCAP to make a DIY fermenting crock from a simple mason jar, I knew I not only needed to carry reCAP in the store, but I also needed Erica to share her post with the FARMcurious crowd!  We’re happy to host her clever fermenting crock article here:

You can spend a lot of money on specialized pickling crocks. Go ahead, be my guest. You’ll learn all about how your $25-$200 is buying you an ideal anaerobic environment in which to nurture your precious anaerobic bacteria…blah, blah, blah.

Me? I don’t need another unitasker in my kitchen. I like to be able to use a few things – bowls, food processors, knives, mason jars – in a variety of flexible ways to achieve my goals. And this isn’t because I have a teeny, tiny kitchen, it’s just that one trick wonders don’t woo me.

So here’s how to turn any mason jar into a damn fine Pickl-It style fermentation crock for about $10, or way less if you already have a reCAP Mason Jar lid (which you should, because they rock and are definitely not unitaskers).

To DIY a very serviceable lacto-fermentation crock, you will need:

• 1 airlock with a rubber stopper found here for a mere $2.75
• 1 reCAP Mason Jar Cap (Wide month lids are coming soon!) $6.99
• 1 Mason jar  in an appropriate size to hold your ferment (you totally already have this, right?)

Step One:  Get your supplies together.  You can purchase the airlock and stopper right here on farmcurious.com and you can purchase the reCAP lid here.

Step Two: Once you receive your loot put your airlock, stopper and ReCAP Mason Jar Lid together in this order:

Viola! Now any mason jar is a fermentation crock. Seal off your ferment from nasty aerobic beasties.

Pat yourself on the back for the $15 or more you just saved. Don’t you love multi-taskers?

By: Erica Strauss, Northwest Edible Life.

Read more about Erica Strauss on her blog Northwest Edible Life and check out her Facebook page here.