Please don’t hate me, because I rarely measure things. Here are the ingredients for a delicious kimchi. I’ve tried to include amounts, but everything is negotiable! Have more carrots? Throw em in! Want it less spicy? Ease up or eliminate the hot peppers.

Many fermentable veggies are in season now in Florida (November-April), so it’s time to roll your sleeves up and get to making your ferments for the year!

Ingredients:

• Napa cabbage roughly chopped, about 1 large head
• Garlic, 3 or way more cloves either whole (peeled) or diced however you prefer
• Ginger, a few big knobs, sliced (I rarely peel, too lazy)
• Turmeric, a few big knobs, sliced or diced (I never peel)
• Hot pepper flakes/sliced hot peppers to taste
• Carrots, about 3 sliced thinly in circles
• Mustard seeds, about 2 teaspoons
• Sea salt
• Clean, distilled, non-chlorinated water

Mix all ingredients except the hot peppers into a bowl. Generously toss with sea salt, and massage the veggies with love. The water should start oozing out after a minute or so.  Add the hot peppers now, and stir in with a spoon, so as not to burn the s*&t out of your hands.

Stuff and pack into mason jars or crocks, leaving about an inch or more. Top with salt brine (about 2 teaspoons per quart of good water).

Let sit covered, and weighted down for 3-14+ days. Taste every day and tamp down veggies to make sure they are under brine. Add more brine if needed.

Refrigerate and cap when you like the taste and want to keep it there.

Here is a Fermentation Recipes handout from a class that I teach twice a year. Basic how-to plus a few solid recipes!