the almost empty jar and another were my winter workhorse. when it is time to fill the root cellar, all the roots/cabbages too small to keep are shredded and fermented. Most of the jar is green cabbage, rutabaga and carrots, but the color is given by a couple beets. There are also onion, garlic, daikon, turnip, chicory root in the mix. Root krauts are processed like regular krauts, but absorb water during fermentation, so for the first month you have to add water weekly, on the other hand the shredding breaks the fibers good, and you don’t have to do the pounding that regular krauts from cabbage need.
Next to it is its replacement, a regular red cabbage kraut.
in front of 2) is a jar of preserved lemons. I only get to visit my in laws once a year, so I load up. These are container lemons, they were on the dry side, a lot of them had to be juiced to cover the rest.
Next to 3) is a jar of garlic scapes pickles, my least favorite, but minced, they will go well in burgers, doing the pickle part and the garlic part at once.
are preserved olives, used to be 17 lbs of them, who live in the large mouth demijohn in the background. Started in Sept. 2015, at 3 oz salt per quart of water they are by far the saltiest of all ferments, it took them one year to become good. They are excellent now. A thick layer of mold forms on top of the water monthly, but it stays together when you pick it up with two fingers to get to the olives, which are unaffected.
Pickles. always great. But as a general rule I undersalt, this is one oz per quart, I do a couple of jars for 10 days and then in the fridge, the rest of the jars for winter keeping have to be cooked. you can see the oak leaves at the bottom.
behind the pickles and to the right is a fermenting gallon of apple cider vinegar. I do all my own vinegar too, from juice, about 4 gallons a year.
the plastic jar is frozen natto, which I make about 12 lbs at a time and freeze. Once hated in my house, now my wife has forced me to triple my rate of production, as she takes it to work for lunch. This is a one day ferment at about 104F, using bacillus subtilis.
is half a gallon of beet kvass, which gets quite complex for something that is only beets, water and salt (kraut juice is recommended as a starter).
I do pickles and sauerkraut here, the wife hates home pickles but my favorite is kimchi. you can make from scratch (easy, and WAY better) or even with a packet you basically add to napa cabbage, but kraut is easy and good…and my absolute favorite is either kimchi (taste) or red cabbage kraut (color) done as just cabbage and salt, and possibly a bit of onion or garlic, but not much…b.asically just a red cabbage pickle. I hate worrying over the fermentation and mold on the top, but f#&% is it ever good compared to commercial kraut.
note for kimchi: there are dozens of varieties, and even if your first thought is “hot” you can add 1/4 the chile, make a water kimchi from radish and Asian pear, etc. etc. etc. etc…
there’s at least as many kimchi as kraut, probably far more…
alos, google Sandor Kratz (I hope IO have that right) and “wild fermentation” if you like…the guy has all sorts of ferments, and also an in-depth discussion of what makes them tick. Both as a blog, and a book.
After olives are fully cured, you can soak them in fresh water to reduce the amount of salt. Soak from few hours to a couple days depending on how much residual salt you like. They should be stored in fridge after that unless consumed in a few days.
I love kimchi. It was the first ferment I tried in a Fido jar, before I knew the intricacies of Fido jar fermenting…
So anyway, I pack the kimchi mixture - Napa cabbage, garlic, scallions, pepper, fish sauce, etc - into the Fido jar and latch it shut. Later that evening my wife (who is always a little skeptical of my experiments, and who also has a strong intolerance for even the slightest smell) tells me she thinks something is wrong. I reassured her that everything would be fine and we went to bed.
The next morning I went into the kitchen… Now anyone who has fermented in a Fido jar knows they build up a lot of pressure from the CO2 generation. The pressure periodically vents through the gasket in the lid. Usually it’s a gentle and gradual process… Well so much pressure had built up in that kimchi that the juice must have vented and been sprayed as a high velocity mist. There was a ring of red stain on the wall around the entire room right at the height of the jar. In some places it must’ve shot 6 feet or more.
Thanks, I may try that. With a water supply that contains both chlorine and chloramine, I have to take some precautions because after all it is the bacteria we are after. In my case, I save lemons that have been squeezed, put water in a pitcher, add half a lemon, and leave there for a couple of days. Time dissipates the chlorine, and time and ascorbic acid the chloramine. It is one of the reasons why I like to make large amounts in one shot (hence less kimchi), it requires this extra step.
Funny, and you are hardly the only one to have had that sort of accidents. To avoid that, I take out the rubber when I ferment inside a glass jar, or leave the cap loosely screwed. Both ways allow enough gas to escape.
I still use the gasket, bc I like the airlock aspect of the Fido jars. Prevents oxygen contamination / spoilage. But now I put the jars on a cookie tray, and cover each jar with a ziplock bag. This setup contains all the vented liquid.
I made several good batches of kraut last year but have been on a really bad streak of failed ferments. 2 batches of kraut, cauliflower, onions. Kraut should be easy but the last week batches seemed like the salt wasn’t drawing enough juice from the cabbage.
The kimchi i ate was pretty darn hot, but red pepper flakes might do it. I did like how the nappa cabbage stalks were a little like celery after they fermented.
