Fermentation

I have been doing this since the early eighties, when I made yogurt in half-pint jars inside a cardboard box with a light bulb in it, run by a PID controller. My first sauerkraut, in a one-gallon crock, did not turn out well — so I backed down to a half-gallon jar with an airlock in a rubber bung, and that worked, and I still use it. From there it went up: a German water-sealed Gärtopf, which I love, and then stoneware crocks at five, ten and finally thirty gallons, with wooden tops I cut myself. Thirty gallons of cabbage going sour in the basement perfumes the entire house through a closed door, and I consider that a feature. This is all of it — the history, what is actually happening in the crock, how to start small, and every ferment I have got my hands into.