Your garden has meant it well with you again this year and gave you a rich red cabbage harvest? The pointed cabbage from the vegetable subscription box is waiting to be processed and, oh yes, there are beet and carrots in the stock? You can preserve all these vegetables - and many more - in a healthy way by fermenting them and at the same time increase their enjoyment. To do this, it needs not much more than good salt and a vessel like our fermentation pot from the Westerwald traditional pottery Pfeiffer-Gerhards.

First, cut or slice your vegetables into fine strips and put them in a large bowl with a little salt. In the second step, mash the vegetables or knead them thoroughly with your hands until the juice they contain begins to escape. Our recommendation: Start with a small amount of salt - about ten grams per kilogram of fresh vegetables - and after kneading for a while, try it out to see if it already tastes good to you. After all, it is always possible to add a pinch of salt (but it is not so easy to dilute it). For example, if the head of cabbage is not quite crisp, you may need a little more salt to massage out enough juice. As a rule of thumb, the more salt you use (maximum 20 grams), the longer the shelf life of the vegetables you last as compact and tightly pressed as possible in the fermentation pot to remove residual air in it.

Our fermentation pot comes complete with weighting stones and lid. For good practical reason, the lid rests in a water channel. Escaping fermentation gases find their way out through it, while the surrounding air is denied access. This prevents the spread of cream yeasts that could spoil the contents (they need oxygen to multiply). Whether and when the desired degree of maturity is reached, you find out best by trying.