Episode 23 – Karen Ross of The Probiotic Jar The Fermentation Podcast » Podcast Feed

I have today on the line Karen Ross, who is the creator of The Probiotic Jar, to talk about health in general and the process of anaerobic fermentation using an air-lock instead of the old-school mason jar method that I’ve been using.
I mention at the beginning of the show how there are things that circulate in the fermentation community about different methods of how to ferment pickles and other things and I think they all have their place.
On a scale of good, better, and best (with best being much farther down the scale than the other two), after using The Probiotic Jar, I think this method is just about the best you can get. If you’re like Karen, who I consider to be in the arena of a fermentation purist when it comes to the quality of a ferment and excluding oxygen and mold, and if you might be hypersensitive, then anaerobic fermentation using an airlock is by far the method you should be looking into.
The offerings out there are starting to be many whether that ends up being a ceramic crock with a water moat like from Mark Campbell Ceramics, the Kraut Source that’s stainless steel, or like we’ll be going over today, The Probiotic Jar, which is glass and also has a very handy glass bowl perfectly fitted to weigh down your ferment and have the ability to skim off oxidized brine as well as a guaranteed smooth hole in the top of the lid to make sure no oxygen gets in.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy today’s conversation and make sure to join the conversation below!
TOPICS INCLUDED IN TODAY’S FERMENTATION PODCAST:

A bit from me on the different fermentation jars and crocks and the power of anaerobic fermentation
Karen tells her story how she got into fermentation, coming across Sally Fallon Morrell’s book Nourishing Traditions, and how she couldn’t eat ferments created the general aerobic way that was taught due to her body not being able to process ferments because of the byproducts and chemicals that were created, so she looked for better fermentation vessels
How Karen met Lisa Herndon of Lisa’s Counter Culture and how they were looking for a better way to ferment which led them to the idea of a fermentation vessel that didn’t leak oxygen
Why they decided to use the Fido jar style jars over mason jars to create the system for anaerobic fermentation
The big considerations when creating The Probiotic Jar, the availability worldwide, and how far they’re reaching people now
Karen gives her thoughts on the difference between fermenting using other methods like the mason jar method vs an anaerobic fermentation of an air lock
Her health crisis ten years ago of living in a house filled with mold and the challenge of regaining her health
Karen’s theory (which I feel is correct and right along the lines of permaculture thinking of natural systems in composting) is that lactic acid bacteria clean up mold and if you give them a perfect environment, free of oxygen, they will multiply, dominate their environment, and clean it up, giving you the highest quality ferment possible
Three ways that spoilage is either reduced or cleaned up in a ferment – reduce or eliminate oxygen, lower the pH, or add large amounts of salt versus what you can do in The Probiotic Jar
Some great conversation on the compounds that mold forms and how it’s not just the mold spores and filaments that are bad for you, it’s the compounds that mold creates and how lactic acid bacteria and clean those up and deactivate them
A question on whether or not to add starters like whey to a ferment that’s just starting out and how you don’t need it in The Probiotic Jar
The strains of bacteria naturally occurring on vegetables vs the cultures required to make dairy ferments and how the process is different
Explaining the process of back slopping and using a previous brine from a ferment to start a new one and the health benefits you might be missing from aging a fe[...]