Question:
my question is this..Is it safe to pickle or ferment foods in a crock that is cracked. Being familiar pottery and glazes, I always understood that drinking from a mug with cracks could give you lead poisoning. Is the same true for fermenting foods in a cracked crock?

Answer: This is a tough question for me to answer as I collect more crocks than use them for pickling or canning. Though I have made a number of different items in the crocks from pickled fish to sauerkraut and never had any problems with spoilage. I would think that a crack in your crock would not hurt the contents, but this is only a guess as I just could not say for sure. Al Kohlman