Making Real Sauerkraut

I made the time to start a jar of sauerkraut fermenting, using Sandor Katz's method of pounding the lightly salted cabbage to release the juices. The dark speck is one of the juniper berries I added for flavor. You don't really see the juice in this photo below, but there was enough to fill the very tightly packed jar.

I pounded the cabbage (half at a time) with the butt of my chef's knife, mainly because it was handy, and heavy. The carrots were added just for color, and I barely managed to pack the entire shredded and pounded 6-or-so-pound cabbage into the jar. 

I started it at suppertime, and used about 1-1/2 tablespoons of sea salt. The juice tasted salty but it hadn't had time to penetrate the cabbage so I'm hoping it isn't too salty when finished. (This is my first kraut in years and it's trial and error again. You can always rinse it before serving.) It started fermenting quicker than I thought it would (less than 24 hours), and I hadn't placed the jar in a container to catch overflows yet. When I came home from pitting plums the next afternoon, it had already spewed juice out all over the counter!

In another few days it will get moved to the cool and dark root cellar until October. YUM!