A friend from Bastry recently contacted me, "What would you think if I sent you some jars of kraut for a pair of earrings?? Deal??" Deal.
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| Curry Kraut made by Eliza Winne |
The memories of Liza opening up her fermented vegetable mash in the halls of Bastyr make me smile, I remember down the end of the long hallway hearing folks sniff loudly and say, 'what IS that smell??' While the smell can pungent at times, the taste is always extremely satisfying. The taste is vibrant and humbling.
The taste is alive. Literally.
So when I opened my package from Liza the other day, it was no surprise that the first jar lasted less than 24 hours. Greg was lucky to get a bite or two in before I was polishing off the last bite. The second jar I am savoring and take a few bites each day so that I can drag out the pleasure into several days.
It has been a year since I have made a batch myself. In Seattle, it was a natural part of my cycle to have a batch or two of ferment going in my kitchen, but have had trouble fitting it into my San Antonio cycle.
A year is much too long. So I busted out a glass bowl, my wooden muddler, my veggie knife, and some sea salt and got busy today. My fist batch will be purple cabbage, carrots, Brussels sprouts, and the few drops of fermentation liquid left at the bottom of Liza's kraut jar.
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| My creation |
The leftover liquid will be key, propagating the new batch with bacteria from the previous batch. It takes out a bit of the luck that is inherent to my batches of kraut, historically speaking.
Now I wait. This time next month I hope to reap the reward of my patience .
For further reading:
Eliza Winne's blog dedicated to cultured foods: http://oldtrition.blogspot.com/
Sandor Katz's website, the fermentation guru: http://www.wildfermentation.com/
My previous blog posting on fermented citrus: http://annamacnak.blogspot.com/2010/04/preserving-with-salt-case-study.html
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