I’m in Puerto Rico, though, so I might have to go the refrigerator route. No basement, and no cool weather ever. If this works out, I might actually buy a small fridge just for fermentation, so I can cool things to just 70 degrees.

My wife is Hungarian, so we’re really looking forward to csalamádé (which is effectively sauerkraut with peppers and onions).

My father-in-law has been diagnosed with the former, and when you get cancer of the oesophagus, you’re usually young (60s or less) and you are usually given less than a year to live. Of the various types of cancer around, thisis one that you don’t want to get.

I’m very ignorant of lactofermentation, how it works etc., but I did a truckload of reading when my FIL was diagnosed a few months back, and this risk factor stood out. He eats a diet very high in pickled and salted foods, but is otherwise healthy and not overweight, nor a smoker, and he exercises regularly.

For the record, I should state that I think the Weston A Price foundation are rather misguided, as they are ‘believers’ in an almost religious idology, rather than basing their food practices on the two logical options: cultural practices (e.g. a traditional mediterranean diet or asian diet and or/evidence-based healthy eating (e.g the Fuhrman eating plan a.k.a. Eat To Live). People who follow Price also tend to be very aggressive and anti-science/nutrition.

So while I’m intrigued by this, I’d be wary. I think the logical thing is, as always, to eat a balanced diet and not too much of any given food. Basing your diet on any one method of preparation or one particular foodstuff is, evidence seems to indicate, more likely to cause disease than eating a large variety of food prepared in a huge number of ways. And I’ve never read *anything* that says you can eat too many fresh fruits and veggies

I just put up three half-gallon jars of lacto beans, two plain and one with herbs and spices.

There are really two styles: cabbage, beets, carrots, turnips, etc., cut up fine, pound with salt until the the juices flow well, and layer with onions, spices, etc., as you like. You want about 1 to 1.25 tablespoons pickling salt per jar.

The second way is for beans and cukes. I cut up cukes unless they are very small, pack into jars with spices, etc., then pour brine over to the top. Green beans must be blanched first, about 10 minutes. The shoulders of the jar pretty well keep the veggies in. You want to leave about 1 inch of head space.

In either case, screw on the lids but not too tight. They work on my kitchen counter even at 75 degrees, it just doesn’t take as long as in the winter at 65 degrees. It’s good to put a saucer under the jars, so you don’t have pickle juice running over the counter.

After a few days, with a CLEAN SPOON each time, sample your pickle. When it is sour enough to your liking, put in the frig. It usually takes 6-8 days to ferment. Once in the frig, they can keep at least 6 months and sometimes up to a year, if we don’t eat them first.

If the veggies have strange-colored growths or have turned funny colors, or smell bad, are slimy, etc., throw them out. You can tell. I have only had failures using crocks; the jars have always done the job for me.

Crunchy, if you have bad organisms, you’ll *know* - it really is almost impossible to screw it up and not know - and I’ve only ever screwed it up once - if I can screw up that little, so can you!

Using canning jars - when you use canning jars, you need to leave more space, and make sure the liquid covers them - but if the stuff is packed tightly enough in the jars, it can’t really float up.

Sharon

Ailsa - I made pickles that were not lacto-fermented with my glut of cukes. Fresh refrigerator pickle recipes are all over the internet. And the Pickled Cucumbers recipe from Joy of Pickling was Japanese with a Chinese flavor - outstanding. (I’ve got 4 jars in the fridge still!)

I don’t have a crock but I do have half gollon glass jars. I’ve been using those for pickling. It’s easy to set a smaller jar inside, full of water, to weight down the cabbage or whatever. I’d love to have a crock but none of shown up at the thrift stores and I’m not positive it’d be a good idea to buy a used one without knowing the prior uses.

Also, wanted to add my agreement that our sauerkraut didn’t stink at all, and you had to be right up on it to smell it at all. And we just did it in the pantry, main floor, room temp. of maybe 70+. Like Sharon says, the “right” microbes are not fussy at all, and they are _rugged_.