Month: August 2014

Earlier today, I set about prepping my sauerkraut for the fermenting pot. Last evening, I’d set the produce aside in a weak brine solution that I’d prepared and today, I rinsed the quartered cabbage thoroughly and started chopping up all that produce.

 

It looks lovely, don’t you think?

I chopped the cabbage with one of my large knives. I guess, it took about twenty to thirty minutes to chop everything. Who knows? I wasn’t really counting.

 

Once the chopping was finished, I started adding the produce layers to the fermentation pot. In between the produce layers, I sprinkled salt and other seasonings. I continued to do this until I stuffed everything into my 4 gallon fermentation clay pot.

 

I then placed the outer cabbage leaves on top of the produce. The leaves keep the shredded produce trapped. I weighed everything down with a few plates and set a weight on top of the plates. Tomorrow, I’ll take a peek to see if the brine is covering the shredded produce. If not, I’ll add enough water to complete this task. The next time I’ll check, will be about the two week mark. If it’s not ready, I’ll check two weeks later.

Although we have been having some cooler temperatures, we’re still have some hot days ahead. Because of this, it might not take as long to ferment as it would during the cooler months.

 

My large fermentation clay pot arrived today.

 

Surprisingly, I haven’t placed anything in it yet, but that will happen tomorrow. Today was a bit busy getting the few remaining items that my daughter needed for school. However, I did open the large well packaged box that contained my new fermentation pot. It appears that the handmade clay pot doesn’t have any cracks, and that’s a good thing!

This evening, I roughly cut 12 pounds of cabbage and have submerged the produce in a weak brine solution. Tomorrow morning, I’ll rinse and finally place in it’s final resting place… my 15L TSM fermentation clay pot. This is my largest clay pot by far, it holds 4 gallons.

I’ve included a video on fermenting food on a much larger scale than most homeowners will ever do. I found this video fascinating and quite informative. Enjoy!

 

In other news…

While school shopping with my daughter. I picked up some “quilted jelly jars”.  Tomorrow after church, we’ll be canning jams and jellies. I’m also working on my fourth knitted dreadlock tube, and I started and finished a book on my iPad today. Of course, I hung out with my lovely daughter today also.

In order to increase my knowledge of fermentation, I decided I needed to purchase a book.

I’ve browsed forums, checked out blogs, but I thought it would be a great idea to have a reference book on hand. Something I could turn to without having to be plugged into a technology device.

After much research, I finally decided to purchase The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz. It’s over 500 pages. I purchased the hard copy and the digital copy for my iPad.

I already knew I was in for a real treat since I’d read numerous glowing reviews about this book and I’ve seen several of his videos.

One thing you won’t ever see me do is work with the produce without wearing gloves. My nails are naturally long and even though I make sure I keep them clean, the thought of handling produce with my hands is something you won’t see me do.

Sandor is very knowledgeable about fermenting foods, and I look forward to improving my understanding of fermentation.   Since I have also purchased a digital copy, I don’t have to worry about getting my hard copy messy. That’s important to me, since I like keeping my physical books clean.

I’m finally getting around to posting pictures of my kimchi preparation.

In hindsight, I don’t think I made kimchi before. I’ve made other fermented foods, but the more I think about it, I’m almost positive kimchi wasn’t what I prepared. Regardless, I’m excited about fermenting foods on a more regular basis. With this first batch, I can see a few mistakes I made, but those will be corrected the next time I make kimchi. The cabbage was mildly sweet.

I added carrots, leeks, radish and onions. I then added some freshly ground spices, hot peppers, hot pepper powder, salt, water and a few other things. I’ll be sure to check on the kimchi towards the end of this week. Hopefully, all will be well and we’ll have some delicious kimchi!