Liberty Cabbage

There is sauerkraut fermenting in my kitchen cabinet. Through my research into healthy diets I have come across a book called Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz. Mr. Katz writes about our bodies' need for traditionally fermented foods. Foods that have been fermented without heating hold on to their nutritional value and aid digestion by cultivating good bacteria. Commercially canned food is basically dead, he says. Yes, it gives us calories, but that's about it.

So I am making my own sauerkraut, Katz style. I chopped up a head of cabbage, and sprinkled salt on it each time I added some to my big glass bowl. I also added a little pepper and some onion powder. Then I punched it down with my fist, and set another bowl on top with two pitchers of water inside to weigh it down. The next day as the "brine" (or water that the salt had pulled out of the cabbage) had not covered the top of my cabbage, I added some salt water as per Mr. Katz directions. Then I set my sauerkraut on the counter to ferment. It is supposed to take about a week.

The evening of the second day, Craig came home to me wandering through the house trying to find a dirty diaper that had been left behind somehow. I had repeatedly asked Calvin if he needed to go to the restroom, so much that he was getting irritated with me. I had checked Evie's pants so many times, she started backing away and saying "No, Mommy!" whenever I walked by. But still there was this faint odor, and I couldn't figure it out. Craig dropped his briefcase and said, "Meg, it's your sauerkraut."

Since that second day, the house has been fine though. I put the kraut in a cabinet so it would be out of the way, and when I open it up to check it, it smells wonderful! I even made another batch from red cabbage that is currently being weighed down by the first batch. It all should be completely fermented by this weekend, so I can take it to my parent's house to share my homemade/fermented kraut with my family. I wonder who will be brave enough to try it...