Method

• 1.
  You don’t need any special equipment – large jars will suffice – generally, a quarter of a large cabbage will fit into a 1L jar, so have several jars ready if you come home with a big cabbage.
• 2.
  Ideally, find a nice heavy cabbage. It doesn’t have to be organic but look for one with the outer leaves still on (ask them to get you one, they usually have them out back if you are in a supermarket). Shred your cabbage as evenly as possible, saving one leaf for later. Weigh it and work out what 1.5-2% of that weight is, and that’s how much salt you need. Choose a very fine, local sea salt, weigh it and massage it into your cabbage. Really put some muscle in, squeezing and even pounding it until the juices froth and foam and drip when you squeeze. Add garlic, herbs and spices. Then, into your very clean jars, jam the mixture in as tightly as you can – making sure there are no air pockets as you go. (If you’d like to be decorative then place the dill frond and whole chilli in artfully down the side). Leave a couple of centimetres between the cabbage and top of the jar.
• 3.
  Place a clean outer leaf from your cabbage, ripped to fit, on the very top. It’s good to weigh this all down – with either some baking weights or a baggy of salt or a boiled, non-porous river rock – but if you don’t have these things it’s not the end of the world. Sit your beautiful ferment on a bench somewhere in your kitchen that will have the most consistent temperature and leave it there for at least 2 weeks. You’ll need to tend to it every couple of days by quickly opening and shutting it in order to let the built-up gas out.
• 4.
  After 2 weeks, taste it. It should be sour and fresh and lovely. You might want to take off the cabbage leaf, weight and the very top layer and refrigerate. You have just extended the life of that cabbage for at least 6 months, made it delicious, easier to digest, and created a space for millions of microbes that will love you right back.