So, over Christmas break, my in-laws came to visit. It was the perfect time to return the enormous crock they lent us for making sauerkraut. We realized in about week 4 we could not use it again as it has some pretty major cracks in it that got worse as the salted water worked its way into them and pushed them apart.
I had forgotten to pull the kraut of of the crock until lunch time right before they were heading out! In a mad dash I pulled out all of my glass jars I had sitting in my kitchen and stuffed all of them to the brim! I also filled a pyrex bowl and made everyone down a bite or two.
In my rush, I had also forgotten to protect my skin. I have the most sensitive skin ever. Seriously, I think about fragrance and I break out in a rash. The brine from the kraut demolished the skin on my hands and forearms. I had to wash with baking soda twice to neutralize it! Jeepers, it was crazy. Live and learn, I guess!
Anyway, as I was urging people to eat it, my mother-in-law paid me a high compliment : she took a jar home with her! She and my father-in-law also ate quite a bit of our fermented garlic (which, also in m rush, got knocked over at the table and got ALL over Buddy and his chair...reminding me, again, of the fragrance lesson I learned months ago ;] )! It was a hit!
I'm working on figuring out how/when I'm going to do my second batch and what is going to be different about it. I saw a recipe for chlorophyll kraut the other day that intrigued me - you add greens like parsley or spinach and let them do their magic, too. We'll see - maybe I'll do a tiny batch of that as a test to see if we even like it :) First, though, I need to get some weights that fit in my glass jars.
Well, that ends the saga of my first culture/ferment! Hope you'll join me as I venture forth into the next ones!
xo,
J
soli deo gloria
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