Help with Red Beet Pickles from Nourishing Traditions

[Guest guest]

I tried making Beet Pickles from Nourishing Traditions, and well, it

turned moldy on top in about 24 hours, so I had to throw it away. It

was white mold and they were growing fast (I don't mean just white

film like you sometimes see when you make cucumber pickles and

sauerkraut. These were fluffy cloud like stuff that you can pick up

with a fork.)

I pretty much followed the recipe from her book. I used 1TBS sea salt

and 4 TBS whey from Kefir and the rest, filtered water. Cooked the

beets in advance at 300 deg for 2 hours (instead of 3 hours like the

book said to do since my beets were not too big) and sliced the beets

1/4 inch instead of julianne 1/4 inch. Looking back though, I didn't

cool the beets before putting it in the jar.. (They were slighly warm

to my hands but then I assumed the filtered water in the jar will

cool it quickly.) Could that have caused the mold to grow?? The room

the jar was in was pretty warm the whole 24 hours too (probably at

around 80 degrees since I have no A/C and it had been pretty warm.)

Anybody made Sally's beet pickles? Any advice?

I have been fermenting veggies for a while now (basic 1TBS sea salt

with 4TBS kefir whey) but I have never had this mold problem (the

only things I have been fermenting are fresh veggies, opposed to

cooked veggies like the case with beets).

Any comment greatly appreciated!

Tomo