The Best Sauerkraut, Happy new Year

It is so beautiful in southern Ohio today. I woke up (rather late really) and it was about 70 degrees. The birds were singing and it felt like one of those dreamy spring days when everything is possible. It felt like movement, like making a decision, like letting go.

It seems like it always gets warm in January here these days. Last year, the daffodils and crocuses started blooming in January, then the temperature dropped below zero for 2 weeks in February and our whole year was thrown off -- I mean what is spring without daffodils or summer without peaches?

I canceled my trip to California. My sickness was bronchitis and I am only now, a month later, starting to finally kick it. I decided to stop eating on Saturday. I fasted for about 36 hours and the deep, choking, wheezing cough disappeared. Today I started eating my homemade sauerkraut (yum) and brown rice and I feel sooo much better.

Here's the recipe for the sauerkraut I made which turned out amazing.

1 head white cabbage, chopped small
1 head red cabbage, chopped small
4 onions cut into thin slices
2 heads garlic, (cut each clove in half)
5 carrots, shredded
maybe 3 Tbsp. celtic sea salt
some crushed red chile flakes, to taste
caraway seeds, to taste

Create layers of all the veggies, distributing each evenly throughout or not. (You can always mix it later). AFter each few inches of veggies are laid in the container (I used a large 5 gallon food grade plastic container) sprinkle with sea salt, caraway seeds and hot pepper flakes. Once you run out of veggies to layer into the container, lay a few whole cabbage leaves over the entire mess, put a plate on top and weight the plate down with something. Cover with a towel to keep out bugs and dog hair. If within 24 hours there is not enough brine or liquid to cover the veggies, add some salt water to cover them. Keep the weight on the plate and ignore it in the corner of your kitchen for at least a few weeks.

After a few weeks, remove the weight, the plate and the whole cabbage leaves and taste test the kraut. You can do this by sticking a CLEAN spoon down into the mixture and pulling out a spoonful. If it tastes fully fermented and delicious, it's ready. If it tastes off or weak or not to your liking, just let it sit a while longer, covered, checking every few days or so. The fermentation time will vary depending on the temperature where you're fermenting it -- heat speeds it up, cool slows it down. If it's ready, pull off the cabbage leaves and any of the scum on top of the sauerkraut, mix it all together and put in the fridge. This is the best sauerkraut I've ever eaten. This amount made about 2 gallons, which in my house is disappearing quickly.

So, I will leave you with that. I have to get outside to the dark, warm air of this January evening.