It’s one of fermentation’s most thrilling moments: perhaps it was a bit over-zealousness, maybe insects snuck in an threw a party, or maybe warm weather grabbed hold and ran away with it. Regardless you made something other than what you intended, a mold farm? And it’s time to inoculate the world with your fuzzy rainbow.

Why not get comfortable with these usually unwanted intrusions? It could mean your project is unretreivably off-course, but the processes of nature are continuing to move forward in ways that transform ugk into new life. It really is beautiful. Show off your art piece to your friends. Then, give this a whirl…

Throw a lid over the top to keep any flies or spores from dancing around as you bee-line it for outside. Do this on a cool or rainy day, it’ll keep the stink down.

Take the creative creation to either your compost pile, garden bed, or beneath a tree and flip it upside down. Don’t feel shy about scurrying away quickly. In fact run. Why? Because it’s fun, and if your neighbors don’t think you’re crazy yet then you’re doing something wrong. Maybe this is an overwhelming situation, maybe emotional, but maybe it’s also no big whoop either.

In another day or couple of days kick over the vessel so it’s laying on its side. We’re just letting nature do the cleaning by allowing her to finish the processes she started in your house. Consider it a compromise. The insects will move on, the mold and slime will dry out or wash away. In enough time the life cycles will run through and the vessel will be much easier and friendlier to clean.

There’s an added benefit to having a calculated place to dispose of your secrets and mistakes. What you’re dumping out, through the hard collaborative work of pests, microbes, and you, is rich in nutrients and microbial life to be taken in by the soil, aka, your fermentation disaster is increasing soil fertility.

There’s a neat website here that describes the various nutrients each plant has, and those nutrients get unlocked and added to your soil through the fermentation process along with an added inoculation of microbes.

As far as the scrubbing goes having something that sprays with some good pressure is amazing. It’s especially helpful in getting off any larval carcasses who tend to affix themselves to the sides (yum). But what a great job you’ve done fostering the processors of nature.

For a really good clean I like to soak in a food safe lye solution- the same one I use for pretzel and bagels, just a pinch or two of granules, but only if you’re dealing with a non-corrosive container.

Then scrub to your heart’s content until your next fermentation adventure. Consider lessons learned. Congratulate yourself on inoculating your lastest insect/ mold farm into the world for the health of the whole ecosystem.