20+ Lbs of Cabbage to Jars to Ferment into Various Sauerkrauts

Mandarin, anyone?

 Our CSA told us they had extra mandarins and cabbages, and would sell them to members in 20 pound increments. How could I resist?

Learning to take off his clothes while fermenting.

It took us all day, but we processed 20+ pounds of cabbages into various jars to ferment.

Corollary damage to kitchen during fermentation setup.

 We used a few recipes from Nourishing Traditions but Wild Fermentation and The Joy of Pickling have good recipes, too.

 Basically, each recipe calls for a head of cabbage sliced thinly and 2 T of salt (we use kosher).  Then you pound it and put in jars.  If there are other veggies or spices, they go in before the pounding.  You leave an inch of headspace, and close the jar and leave it on the counter for a few days before putting it in the refrigerator.  I have opened each jar each day to let the juices and air escape, though that's not in the recipe.  They really sit and bubble all day long.

We tried the Cordito (Latin America), which we have made before and LOVED. It is cabbage, salt, carrots, onions, dried oregano, and dried chili flakes.

We also tried the plain sauerkraut, which is cabbage and salt.

We also made Kimchi (Korea): cabbage, onions, garlic, ginger, carrots, radish, chili flakes, and sea salt.

Another we made is Tsukemono (Japan), and it is our first attempt at this one, and I've never eaten it before either. It is cabbage, onions, soy sauce, lemon juice, and sea salt.

So far, they are tasty (Day 2) but all the salt taste hasn't been replaced by sour.

Note you also see the fresh olive experiment in the front of the photos- the green olives are curing in brine which we change weekly (1:10 salt and water by weight) and the black olives are packed in salt and set to drain.  They should be ready in 6-8 weeks from when we started (we are about halfway there).

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