Get fermenting: Fillmore Container giveaway
Monday, August 5, 2013 at 8:00AM
I’m excited to announce the first in what will hopefully be a long line of thoughtful and relevant advertising partnerships* for this blog—-> Fillmore Container is a perfect fit for this readership (a source for any kind of jar or container you could imagine, hello!) and I’m excited to be working with them for the next few months.
They sell jars for handmade candles, bottles for homemade sauces, amber-tinted spice jars (to keep them fresh), growlers for home-brewed beer and kombucha, and so many other types of cool specialty jars. Beyond jars they feature a bunch of complimentary things, like all the ways of closing up jars, canning tools and supplies, and candle making accoutrements to name a few.
When I was chatting about giveaway opportunities with Fillmore Container, I thought about my passion for fermenting stuff and how getting your hands on a good container is probably the hardest part of the project beyond chopping the vegetables. I adore our gallon-sized (formerly olive) jars that our family has gleaned over the years from a middle-of-nowhere vintage shop and a bartender friend, respectively. You can certainly scout out gallon jars, but ones that have decent lids that actually fit are another story.
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Our small stash of gallon jars are in constant rotation, if not full of fermenting veggies or kimchi then they’re holed up for 2-week kombucha cycles in our pantry.
Fillmore Container’s selection of wide-mouth gallon jars features two types of rim closures, a continuous thread and a lug version. I received both and love the continuous thread (plus the CT-style are completely USA-made)!
If you don’t win a free case by entering below, small-scale buying club arrangements will help diffuse the cost of shipping heavy, fragile things like large glass jars. I did some math and discovered that if a group of 8 Texas-residents went in on a shipment together, each person would pay 6.44 for a jar and lid. Beyond cost considerations, co-op’ing a jar order is a great way to a. get people over to your place (they do have to come pick them up, and hell, maybe sit for tea or a snack while they do), b. finally start your Culture Club or, c. just bring together a group of friends to have a skill-share fermenting party.
Fermenting with gallon jars
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These jars are great for, on average, up to 5lbs of most kinds of produce. For ferments that fall around cabbage season, I like to use a couple of the outer leaves of cabbage to serve as a blanket and a glass or other jar that fits inside the large one as a weight to keep veggies from popping up above the brine. No cabbage, then get creative with with your options for weighting.
I’ve had success using my Le Creuset silicone, Cool Tool hot pad as a blanket. Fair warning, the silicone does absorb the flavor combo of your ferment, but after a few hot soapy water washes (and maybe a run through the dishwasher) it eventually returns to an innocuous, non-smelling, handy kitchen tool.
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After the veggies are situated below the brine, I top the whole set up with a muslin produce bag. Cheesecloth and a rubber band works well, too.
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For ideas on what to ferment, check out this recipe for fermented green tomatoes or search for other fermentation projects here. Use the salt:water brine ratio of 3Tbs:1quart, and substitute the green tomatoes in the recipe above for any firm vegetable and ferment away using that basic method. Up your volume in the gallon jar when you have a recipe you like, but keep in mind that if you want to keep the live, probiotic nature of the fermented goods, you’ll have to store the jar in the refrigerator once it’s finished fermenting on the counter. Our entire middle fridge shelf is now home to all sorts of ferments. They stay good in there indefinitely so long as you don’t contaminate them by double-dipping your saliva or other food-spotted fork in the jar.
What you get from Fillmore Container
If you win this giveaway, Fillmore Container will send you a case of four gallon-sized, wide-mouth jars plus their lids. I think it would be fun to invite three of your friends over and throw a fermenting party. Everyone shares the cost of the produce, you prepare it together and everyone takes their gallon jar home to let the lacto-fermentation process roll. You can do what you like with the jars, but if you decide to throw a fermenting party as a result, I’d love to feature photos of your party here on the blog.
As a special bonus prize in this Fillmore Container giveaway (and to encourage collectivism and sharing!), a friend who runs the Round Rock Le Creuset Outlet Store threw in four different-colored silicone Cool Tools. I’ll mail them to the winner to distribute with the jars or to use in your kitchen as desired. (psst, the Le Creuset outlets are a great place to make those special, fancy cookware purchases; they run periodic discounts and specials with their preferred customer list and also feature free shipping on orders over $100, just sayin…)
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Giveaway ends on Sunday at 2pm Central Time, good luck!
*Some of you might recall my recent decision to pull the ad network stream from the site. While it was helping me to carve out more time in my schedule for keeping this blog running with creative content and decent photos, I was dismayed by the lack of control I had in whose ads appeared on my site. My marketing coordinator, Christina and I built a sponsor platform and sought out great companies we support.
Disclosures: Fillmore Container provided me with a complimentary case of gallon jars and they will be mailing the winner’s case of jars directly to them. The Le Creuset Outlet store in Round Rock, Texas provided me with four silicone Cool Tools at no cost to me. I will be paying to ship them to the winner. You will find a few links to my Amazon shop, and if you happen to purchase something from one of them, I stand to receive a small commission. Opinions and support for these companies are my own.
Reader Comments (81)
If I win I will be dipping into my strong Texas German roots and try my hand at making sauerkraut.
I want to try making kombucha! It is so expensive at the store and I think it would be fun to do it at home. Kvass or kimchi would be nice too.
I would love to ferment more things besides kombucha. At the moment we only make kombucha and my husband really wants to start brewing gallon batches of beer and I would love to try sauerkraut!
I just started canning on my own recently and can't wait to do more! This jars look so awesome!!
I can't wait to start some kombucha!
I've just started fermenting kombucha and want to make more...this will be perfect!
What a great giveaway--fingers crossed!
I need a big jar to make lots of pickles!
I love your blog, it's one of my favs, and thhis is a fantastic giveaway! I checked out the Fillmore company blog and plan on subscribing to it as well. Fingers crossed that I win!
I got a little carried away and didn't tell you what I'd do with the jars -- oh so many things but particularly make pickles and ferment my chicken feed!
I would make sauerkraut. And some pickled eggs. Love picked food. Maybe some pickled bologna.
I'll make sauerkraut!
Cool giveaway
A fermenting party! Sounds fun to me!
Excited to use these for making liquors with all the berries that are currently in season!
My daughter and son-in-law are educating me about fermenting. I would start with sauerkraut and go from there!
Oh my... how wonderful. We've been fermenting sodas, kombucha, pickles, krauts, kimchi, cider, and veggies/fruits up the wazoo here... A whole counter is dedicated to projects. How dreamy to have more LARGE jars for adventures on the home front!
I want to put up some hot (spicey) pickled carrots
Oh! I need giant jars and wish for them all the time.
Looking forward to doing some more fermenting.
Oh, the things I would ferment! Sauerkraut, kimchee, more sauerkraut. Did I mention Sauerkraut?
Great blog. Some new things that I have not tried fermenting before but will now.
I can think of so many things! First off, I'd make a big batch of refrigerator pickles as my cukes are really turning it on!
Love this size jar for storing pantry stuffs. But I also want to try fermenting!
I've been eying some kimchi recipes today and thinking I need to get some pepper flakes this weekend. Or even making my own vinegar. On one of the message boards I follow, someone said they make apple cider vinegar with left over apple cores. Apple are in season in September in my area...