They giggled when they saw rocks in my drawer

I just don’t understand it! I had a class full of eager students and when I opened the drawer to get measuring cups they started giggling and whispering. “Look, she has rocks in her drawer, lots and lots of rocks!”

The reason I have rocks in my drawer is that I use them. I use them when I make sauerkraut and other lactofermented vegetables. It keeps the vegetables submerged under the brine making for a better fermentation.

When choosing rocks look for round, rather flat rocks that will easily fit through the mouth of your jars. Discard any rocks that are porous, flake or get gritty when rubbed. I use wide mouth canning jars for my fermentations so a rock about 3 inches in diameter works well. I soak them in warm, soapy water, scrub them with a stiff brush, put them through the dishwasher and boil them to sterilize just before using. When not in use I store them in the drawer. Where else would I store them?

This fall I actually seemed to run out of the right size rocks so my friend, along with her 2 year old, went and collected from their garden. I was so grateful for the gift!

I recently heard from a Sauerkraut class student that he couldn’t get his hands on rocks but was trying giant marbles. I think that would work very well and would lend a festive air to the jars, don’t you?

Read about making Sauerkraut in my September posting, A month's worth of probiotics for the price of a cabbage.