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Happy Monday! Welcome this week’s Bad A** Bacteria post!

As you can see, I haven’t been doing a very good job with this series recently. The reasons why are many, most of which are because life has just gotten too busy and hectic and sometimes I just don’t have the energy to start another ferment and write another post. Plus, last week, I was out of town visiting family back East, so I couldn’t prepare anything.

However, a main underlying reason that I have not created any new ferments recently, is this whole “what is the right way to ferment?” drama. I know that my personality is one to over-analyze and shy away from things that make me uncertain. There is a lot of information still floating around the webosphere about this topic and I continue to read conflicting information. Many of you saw my post from a few weeks ago about being so confused with the recent series that KerryAnn from Cooking Traditional Foods had put together. Her information was exciting, but also overwhelming. So, I’ve kind of shied away from fermenting since then.

What’s a Girl to Do?

Late last week, I finally made the decision that I was going to invest in some Pickl-It jars. I want to ferment and truly believe the nutritional value in doing so. I had a little unexpected money arrive out of the blue (a rare occurrence!) and I set aside some cash for them. I was all gung-ho and was planning on placing my order this weekend ….

Until …

… Enter the Fido.

(Plus, the money I had set aside got spent on groceries, gardening supplies, including some gorgeous tomatoes and pepper plants. Oh well. Such is life.)

After chatting about it on Facebook, my friend Lea, over at Nourishing Treasures, recommended the Fido-style canning jars. These types of jars are made from high-quality glass and designed to withstand pressure. Plus, Lea has several of them and really likes them, and I value her recommendation. On a side note, if you haven’t heard about it already, Lea is doing an AMAZING experiment and I cannot wait to see the results. She is going to be testing 18 different fermenting set-ups and then looking at samples for bacteria, yeasts, molds, etc. I don’t know how she’s keeping this all straight, but I’m glad she is. Part of me doesn’t want to ferment again until I see her results and have a better idea of what types of nasties can be in home ferments, depending on the method used.

Anyways … Back to Fido.

The Fido-style jars are going to be more air-tight than your standard Mason jar, but they are a little easier on the pocketbook than the Pickl-Its. The main thing about these jars is that they won’t have the airlock like the Pickl-Its, so you’ll need to be cautious to burp them regularly. Lea suggested that if I had a glass drilling company in my area, I could ask them about drilling a hole in the lids. I am going to have to do more research on that. And, honestly, I’m not going to invest in any more supplies until I see the results of Lea’s tests. Then I will have a much better idea of what works and what doesn’t, and hopefully will have a better understanding of the fermenting tools that I should invest in.

So, after a bunch of research, I discovered that the prices for the Fido jars at SurLaTable.com were cheaper than Amazon.com! There are several brands of these style jars on the market. The two that SurLaTable.com carries are:

The ones I purchased are the Bormioli Rocco brand, but I am sure the Le Parfait brand is great too. They’re really the same jar, just one is Italian and one is French. Both received excellent reviews as I read about them on various websites.

So, I now have a couple Bormioli Rocco Fido jars and the first ferment I’m going to make is dilly carrots (I started them last night!). I’ve never had dilly carrots, but I see people talk about them all the time. Plus, I have some gorgeous fresh dill growing in my garden that will be perfect for that! I’m looking forward to seeing the results of my ferment using the Fido jar instead of my traditional Mason jar method.

So, that’s where I’m at. I know a lot of you probably think that I’m silly for being so conflicted and overwhelmed about fermented veggies. In the grand scheme of things, there are probably lots of other things I could be worrying about. Or, hey! How about not worrying at all? Now, there’s a concept! 😉 heh heh

For me, it all comes down to this — Even though I don’t have any specific gut issues that I’m trying to heal, I am concerned that there is the potential for long-term damage to the gut if bad molds, yeasts, and bacteria are continuously introduced to the body through contaminated fermented foods. So, I’d rather know what the risks are and then make a decision as to the methods I will employ to ferment.

Want to learn more? Here’s some posts for you to peruse. And, I’d love to hear your feedback! Leave me a comment below! 🙂

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