Fermenting!

Since everything I have been reading lately has talked about the virtues of fermented foods, I decided to try my hand at it. I started with a one night class, put on by the City of Portland in cooperation with a small teaching farm, Living City Gardens. They demonstrated to an odd assortment of students the methods of punching down cabbage into a sauerkraut crock and how to make a brine for sour beets and pickles. Because I don't have it in me to follow instructions, I came home and made my own attempt at fermented veggies: a brined cucumber pickle and a caraway-beet-ginger-sauerkraut. I had to get creative with the containers because I didn't have anything like a ceramic crock on hand. Here's hoping they turn out!