Making Sauerkraut

My brother and sister in law got me a fermentation crock for Christmas last year, so I grew some cabbage in the garden this year to try it out.  My dad's paternal line is Bohemian, so my family grew up enjoying meals that included sauerkraut.  I can't wait to try it when it's finished fermenting.  I really enjoyed preparing this and will definitely be doing it again next year!

This was the largest head of cabbage that grew in this year's garden. I'm not sure why the rest didn't grow as well. Gardening is always trial and error!

I washed the cabbage and chopped into pieces. I really needed to make them smaller, so I'll do that for next year. The crock directions told me to reserve one leaf to put on top of the fermenting cabbage.

Next was squeezing all the juices out (after adding some coarse salt). This is what the cabbage sits in to ferment. It said you can use a flat mallet, potato masher, or your hands to do this. I chose my hands. It took about 12-15 minutes of squeezing and smashing to get enough liquid.

The directions said to fill the crock, leaving 3/4 inch headspace. So I grabbed a couple more small heads from the garden and repeated the process. I still didn't have enough to fill the jar, but I'm hoping it still works!

I put the reserved leaf over the top (this apparently helps prevent mold from growing) and then added the stone weight which keeps the cabbage from floating in the juices.

The directions say to wait a week for it to ferment. You can let it ferment longer if you'd like it more tangy. It smelled so good when I put it in there. It had a sweet smell despite it being only cabbage and salt.