— Sue Baker

So, in terms of the solution itself, which would be, you know, basically water and salt, if that's what we're talking about, I mean, that would last indefinitely, and so long as it's kept clean, uh, without any, uh, you know, outside things dropping into it, you're gonna be fine to hold onto it for a very long time. You know, as you get something, you know, into a bride and you start that, um, that pickling process, uh, even then that, um, setup can last weeks and, and even months, and some would save years, it's very common to create a, a, a pot or a vat of whatever pickle you, you wanna, um, start to ferment right in your brine solution, and then just continue to add to it. You'll, you'll add vegetables to it, and you need to also top it off, um, occasionally with some fresh brine. Um, you wanna maintain the salinity and the acidity, you know, at a safe level to discourage microbial growth. Uh, and then also you want to bring the, the volume up to cover the products, uh, you know, inside your jar to, uh, discourage mold growth. Probably the, the worst thing that could go, uh, go wrong would be mold growth. In other words, uh, there's pretty little opportunity for other things to grow in, uh, in an environment that's gonna be high in acid and salt, and in the case of, um, mold, uh, and if you wanted to be super safe about it, you would discard the whole thing and just start over. But, you know, arguably, you know, you could just, um, clean off the, the mold that might be floating on top and, um, then pay closer attention to it. But, um, you know, the, the quick answer here is that, uh, brines solution can last for a very long time. You just need to be careful of, uh, the cleanliness, you know, of, you know, fingers or utensils or other things that you might put into that environment.