with gripping teeth on its bottom and a slit on its side for brine seepage – that acts as a fermentation gate. Our fermenting pebbles are made from food safe glass, lead free and non porous and are perfect for weighing down vegetables during fermentation. That's why Masontops created an entire suite of products for fermenting vegetables in Mason jars, including Pickle Pebbles.

Weighing your produce down under your salt brine will lessen the chance of mold growth or spoilage to your ferments. When we first started fermenting, we used river rocks as weights, but they're difficult to sterilize and impossible to grip. The first being that they really only come in two sizes (wide and regular) that only work for mason jars. Common complaints from users are that they break and some can be difficult to remove from the jar, hence the “handles” on the newer designs. Turning off the personalised advertising setting won’t stop you from seeing Etsy ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive.Food safety also matters so we laboratory test these pickle stones to ensure they are free from lead and heavy metals and safe to use in your sauerkraut and kimchi.

They work most of the time but using weights when they are not in use in other ferments is always my first choice as they are so easy to just drop in. If we do not receive photographic evidence of the damage we will not be able to process a claim and therefore will not be able to offer a refund/exchange. The 2 lids sup­plied con­tain inte­grat­ed one-way valves that pre­vent air get­ting in while let­ting CO 2 escape from the jars dur­ing fer­men­ta­tion.If the vegetables are above the surface of the brine because no fermentation weights are used then they are exposed to oxygen which allow unwanted microorganisms to grow. Please do not subject your Pickle Pebbles to extreme heat changes, like moving from the hot dishwasher to a cold brine, as this generally causes glass to crack. The The Fermentation Lid by Kraut Source moves beyond the concept of a weight to hold a ferment in place and instead makes use of downward force applied by a spring. When paired with canning jars or other vegetable fermenters, these fermentation weights lead to some amazing, healthy fermented delights!

A fermentation springrelies upon the pressure from a coiled spring to push your ferment down under the brine. When making home-made fermented foods such as kimchi or sauerkraut, it’s vital to keep your food completely submerged for tasty and successful results. Slice a 1” thick piece out of the portion of the radish that is closest to the diameter of weight you need (daikons tend to be tapered so you can choose the location based on the width). This is because the carbon dioxide produced during fermentation rises up through the vegetables and pushes out any oxygen that remains at the top of the jar.If you are thinking about fermenting foods like fruit and vegetables then following some basic rules will ensure you end up with a delicious, tangy result rather than a potential spoiled, fuzzy ferment. We can provide you will all the fermenting supplies you need including glass mason jars, fermenting lids, a sauerkraut pounder, and cheesecloth. These crocks look great and have everything you need to ferment without having to get separate bits so these are well worth paying the extra money for. If you need fermentation weights for your large crock, I highly recommend the lead-free glass weights sold by Stone Creek Trading as an alternative to the traditional porous ceramic weights which are sold with most fermenting crocks.

I checked them daily and monitored brine coverage, removing a fermentation weight from the challenge when there was no more brine covering the packed sauerkraut. In a closed system like the FARMcurious Fermenting Set (or other airlock system) a weight is generally not needed because the airlock keeps the environment oxygen-free and safe from contamination of yeast and mold. When using a fermentation weight, as with the Pickle Pebble and Easy Weight, more weight helps but it doesn’t seem that you can make a weight that is heavy enough and yet not take up all the space needed for the brine. The major drawback is that they don’t have enough weight to hold your ferment below the brine for the 3-4 week duration of a ferment. I bought 3 of these to use with the 3x 1 litre jars which I also purchased including airlock seals and additional screw lids.The only exception to this is the tape we use which is made from PVC and needs to be thrown in the normal waste.