• Sterilizing jars for sauerkraut or pickles is optional.
It is fine to simply wash the jars in hot, eco friendly soapy water and rinse, then 10 minutes in boiling water if you desire, we never do the boiling water step!.
Just make sure containers are clean, the fruits and vegetables are fresh and stay completely submerged in the brine and protected in an anaerobic environment.
• Fermentation done under VERY unsanitary conditions have been shown to not have proliferations of harmful microbes – because the salt inhibits their growth, or the cultures that are being grown simply grow too fast and overpower the opportunistic bad guys (kefir for an example).
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8zMDc5MGYyNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==