Sauerkraut demo at Common Ground

On Sunday, Diane and I did a demonstration on making sauerkraut at a Garden Share at Common Ground in Palo Alto. It went really well lots of people came and asked questions, We had a young man 10 or 11 years old with a very mature palate who really liked the sauerkraut we brought as a finished product, he even took some home with him and shared it with his family.

I find fermentation to be a fascinating subject. It is another way that humans have been able to preserve harvest from one season to be used in another. I was not a fan of fermentation until i heard Zandor Katz speak after coming home from the first time i heard him speak, i immediately made a batch of sauerkraut and have loved it ever since.

It is very easy to make just cut up some cabbage, add salt knead it with your hands to break down the cell walls, pack it in a jar, make sure the cabbage is submerged in the liquid to prevent molding, cover it, leave it on the counter and let it go. Taste it every few days until you get a taste you like, and then put it in the fridge to slow down the fermentation process.

The fermentation bacteria are already on the vegetables, putting it in salt creates an environment that these bacteria can thrive in, and the bad bacteria cannot. No liquid needs to be added, the solution is created by the liquid in the cells of the cabbage.

This is a mixture of cabbage, golden beets, and carrots we made from the weekend before,that was brought to the garden share.

The mixture put into a pickl-it jar, a fancy krauting crock, one of these is not really needed to do saurkraut.

 

The mixture we made at the demo at the garden share.