Just a nice project on a winter’s day. Setting up vegetables for lactic acid fermentation. Simple process that does not need to be done on the scale of German style sauerkraut.
For this run, it was primarily red cabbage, carrots, garlic, and dill.
They are not your typical fermented vegetables you are likely used to. They stay crisp and crunchy. The fermentation is at room temperature for about a week, and then it all goes into the fridge (which slows the fermentation down so much it lasts for well over 6 months) for whenever you want some.
The Adickes’ son Junior watched me for much of it, eating carrot “chips” dipped in sauerkraut and sour cream dip.
Violet’s favorite is the carrots, which is the least work of any of them. Just slice the carrots up, pack them in a jar along with a bunch of crushed garlic cloves, and a few sprigs of dill.
You wedge some longer pieces of carrot in on the top to hold everything down.
Then four tablespoons of salt (for half gallon jars). Just don’t use a salt with added iodine. Fill over the top of the carrots with water that does not have any chlorine in it. Either filtered water or well water works fine.
Cabbage is a little more work. Core and chop the stuff up. Save the outer leaves to wedge over the top in much the same way.
You bruise and pound the stuff into the jar in layers, adding the salt (same amount as the carrots, just added as you go), garlic, and dill as you go.
I did not have to add water to the cabbage by the time I was done. Pressing it down, combined with the bruising and salt, extracted enough water from the cabbage itself. If you need to add some water to the top, so long as again, it is not chemical laden city water, you will be fine.
Just as a warning, have the jars on trays somewhere while they ferment, and not just sitting on the counter, as they will often bubble over while fermenting, and red cabbage stains are a bugger to try to remove from your counter. 5-7 days, depending on personal tastes (and how warm you keep your house) is all it takes for the fermentation process, and you have home fermented pickled vegetables.
