I have a recipe that I've been using for several years now to make dill
pickles. It produces some very yummy deli style pickles that I'm very proud
of. For this recipe, I put all my cucumbers, dill, brine, spices and garlic
in a large container and let them sit for 3-4 weeks. They usually ferment,
creating a nasty looking/smelling frothy scum which I scoop off each day.
For some reason, they have not started fermenting yet this year after 3
weeks. The brine turned cloudy and there were a few bubbles the first
couple of days but that's it.

I had this happen once before but luckily, I had three batches on the go at
once and was able to "back slop" some of the fermenting brine into the
bucket that had not started up, giving it a kick start so to speak.
However, I am unable to do that this year as I am only making one batch.

Any suggestions to get them fermenting would be greatly appreciated.

Also, if they didn't really ferment the way they have in the past, is there
much chance of them going bad? I mean, could they be dangerous to eat?

Frustrated from faulty fermentation,
Craig