adventures in fermentation

Over the last year or thereabouts I have become increasingly aware of the importance of gut health in overall wellbeing and have started connecting the dots with a number of minor but niggling ailments that Briony has. To her horror and everyone elses mum's-on-a-soapbox amusement, i have embarked on an attempt to improve all of our guts. The people in the know say that in the quest for gut healing we should (among other things) be eating fermented foods everyday so I decided to try my hand at sauerkraut.
I know nothing about sauerkraut, I have never eaten it and I didnt know what it should be like but undeterred, I did lots of googling and websurfing and formulated my plan.
I bought a purple cabbage and some sea salt. I sliced the cabbage finely and did the whole salting, bruising, packing process. I put it on the bench and I waited. It bubbled and pushed the lid off the jar several times over the next few days and then there was the taste test!
I was a little hesitant. In this culture of obsessive sanitising and sterilising, even for a notably sanitation phobic person like I am, the fermentation thing takes a bit of getting past but it was good! It was crunchy and tangy and a bit unusual but completely edible.

I was so pleased I made kimchi as well! 

I think fermented ketchup might be the next project........