General Good Practice

This is the page of HOW I do my fermenting.  This is MY best practice. There are other ways, this is my way.  

First up, equipment: 

I use 1/2 gallon Mason or Ball jars, though I use quarts sometimes

The lids are the white plastic Ball Brand "Storage Caps".  They can be little hard to find, locally only BiMart carries them. Here is a link to what I am talking about: http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Wide-Mouth-Plastic-Storage-8-Count/dp/B000SSN3L2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1369504894&sr

I drilled 3/4 inch holes in the lids, and then put in an airlock with a pre-drilled rubber stopper.  The airlocks and stoppers are available at my local brewing store for about $1 each.  http://www.amazon.com/Piece-Plastic-Airlock-Sold-sets/dp/B000E60G2W/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie

Next up, procedure: 

Everything needs to be clean. I have a bucket of bleach water sitting on my counter while I work, and just about everything gets dunked in that bucket. I consider something to be clean if it is coming strait out of the dishwasher, as we run it very hot.  I clean the counter, and anything that drops onto it once we have started goes into the compost.  

I lay out a clean plastic cutting board, and clean, sharp, knife. 

Into the bleach bucket go the jars, funnel lids, and airlocks. 

Let's use the carrots as an example.  I go to the sink, and peel each carrot.  The peeled carrots are then stacked on the cutting board or on a clean plate. I chop off the ends and discard them.  I slice the carrots.  When the board is getting too full, I get a jar out of the bleach bucket, and rinse it out. I start putting the carrots in the jar.  When the jar is full, I set it aside. 

When the jars are ready, I mix up the brine, using clean bowls and measuring cups.  I fill the jars with brine. I rinse the lids and airlocks, and put them on the jars, and am done!  Clean up time :)    

I DO have issues for the first week of a ferment with this set up: the solids rise to the top, block the passage of gas, and then it overflows.  SIGH.  I have to shake the jars everyday during this period.  Then the next phase of fermenting starts, and it stops overflowing so much.  Don't pack your jars too tightly, or fill too full, as this problem will be highly exacerbated. 

However, this is highly preferable to having to deal with infinite mold everyday on an open vat, so I am totally willing to shake the jars for the first couple of days.