I hope you are enjoying the season with lots of fresh local produce available whether from your garden or the farmer’s market. Just wanted to share a trick I’ve learned regarding culturing/fermenting vegetables. I don’t know about your house but ours is warmer than 60-70 degrees F. Vegetables need a temperature in that range to ferment–if it gets hotter they tend to go bad. So if you have had this problem in the summer, use a cooler to cool down the veggies. I just made 2 batches of Chinese cabbage sauerkraut (simple ingredients: Chinese cabbage, garlic, fresh dill weed, and salt). See my recipes here, here, and here for other combinations. I kept my cooler in the kitchen for easy access (remember you have to press out the gas bubbles once a day) and used 1 ice pack replaced with a cold one twice a day and it worked beautifully. In one week I had well-fermented kraut with no mold.
Keep on having fun in your kitchen!
