Crazy Kraut

Most of the time I'm half crazy.  I'm also half German and don't know which half is crazy at the moment.  Ever since being bitten by the Kefir (fermented milk) bug, I'll try krauting anything/everything.

Food processor did this for me

Fall gardens produce lots of Things I get to do today--way more than any regular "today" can handle.  But then you already knew that.  Just because one whole bed of tomatoes has the flavor equal to sticking your tongue out into the wind doesn't mean they can just be lobbed over the fence to the chickens.  They are tomatoes, after all.  So I pulled up all the plants, harvested 25 pounds or so of green tomatoes that I made into kraut.  First time for everything, right?   The cookbook said you could use any vegetable.

Used a plastic bag with water to hold veggies under the brine.
Clever, sure to fit, but didn't weight the kraut enough.

Keeping the veggies under the brine is the most important thing in krauting.  Inexperience found me forgetting to measure the crock to see if the hold-down plate would fit.  What if it wedged in so tight I couldn't pull it out?

With the weight-plate in a plastic bag,  it could be
tested for size and pulled free when it was time
to check the krauting process.

Now the truly crazy part:  I could just sit down in the middle of the kitchen floor with a jar of this tomato kraut and a fork and be the happiest person on the block.

Crock, brine, and tomatoes with plate to hold them down.
A jar of juice stands guard and holds everything under
the brine.

Half gone already.