I don’t have many sauerkraut customers.  It goes on the table and back in the refrigerator, usually untouched,  and I think I’m getting ready to make future pork chops out of it.  Cordito or kimchee usually goes pretty fast around here, but this fall I wanted to make it a bit chunkier and with lots more onions.

My favorite farm, Thistle Whistle, had some lovely vegetables at the Farmers Market this week, so I thought of cordito.  Instead of shredding the carrots I sliced them thinly in circles.

Then I sliced these wonderful red onions which were long and thin. This way the onions would be in small circles.

And I sliced my favorite variety of cabbage, a Dutch Flat,  which is mild and sweet.

Slice the cabbage as thin as possible.

Mix up all the vegetables very well.

Pack as much as you can in wide mouth mason jars. I like these pint and a half jars for fermented vegetables. Press down as hard as you can, leaving about an inch at the top when it is full.

Sally Fallon in Nourishing Traditions has the proportion of salt to fermented veggies as 1 tablespoon to one half gallon or one and a half teaspoons salt per quart. I find this too salty for ferments, even though I love sea salt, but this is the proportion of salt I use for beet kvaas. For these pint and a half jars I use one teaspoon sea salt.

For quart jars I use one and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

For quick flavor and heat I use the liquid fire I have in the refrigerator, which goes in almost everything.

Two heaping teaspoons will give a lot of heat without making your tongue burn.

Many people leave out the living whey, but it certainly insures a super start on the best probiotic fermentation. Not everyone has a cow, I understand, but since I do and also make kefir everyday I have a lot of kefir whey on hand. Kefir is an amazing way to preserve raw milk and kefir, kefir cheese and kefir whey will store for at least a year and be a powerhouse of probiotics. My favorite is colostrum kefir whey, which I added 1/2 cup to each jar. As an aside, for those of you who do have your own cow, do not throw away your colostrum next calving (or give it to me.) For real, colostrum butter is neon yellow and absolutely delicious.

You really only need about two tablespoons of living whey per jar, such as whey from kefir, yogurt or raw cheese making, and then fill up the rest of the jar with filtered water.

Of course garlic makes everything better and I want to make sure each jar has enough, so I put it in last. I used one head of garlic.

The Nourishing Traditions fermenting instructions have you set the jars out at room temperature for three days and then refrigerate. Considering that I use a lot of kefir whey, which continues to multiply in the refrigerator quite well, I only leave mine out for a day, then refrigerate. This batch of cordito made ten pint and 1/2 jars and one quart jar. It is best if it can ferment in the refrigerator for about a month before enjoying as a spicy condiment.