The Treasure of the Kohl Rabi

Farmers markets have returned to the Rochester area, and with farmers markets come seasonal treasures like the delicious kohlrabi.  Not the prettiest thing to look at, but they can be delicious when eaten raw, cooked in stir-fry's, or fermented.  And ferment them I did, to bring you The Treasure of the Kohl Rabi! 

Named after the 1948 classic "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" starring Humphrey Bogart and directed by John Huston because that movie was awesome.  Seriously, if you haven't seen it you should stop reading this post, go to wherever people go to get movies these days, watch it, and then return to this post and continue reading because I'll get lonely if you don't

Anyway, back to fermenting things.  I've only had Kohlrabi fermented once before, and it was from my ferment share through the Small World Bakery here in Rochester (an awesome way to get try to new ferments by the way).  They sliced the kohlrabi into thin strips and fermented it with salt.  It was good to use on things like sandwiches or wraps, but I wanted something you could just eat straight.  So I took the gnarly looking vegetable, peeled off the skin, and cut it into little spears to give me something that I could eat like pickles.

Mom says I'm pretty on the inside.

"Cucumbers? We ain't got no cucumbers. We don't need no cucumbers. I don't have to show you any stinking cucumbers."

Then I decided to spice them up with because you can do these things when you make your own ferments.  So I put in 2 jalapenos, 2 garlic cloves, half a tbsp of black peppercorns, half a tbsp of black mustard seeds, and a handful of dill from my garden.  

Luckily for me, this is a blog about ferments and not photography....

 I jammed all that action into the bottom of the jar, put the kohlrabi on top, and then poured in a mix of 2 cups water with a little less than 2 tbsp salt mixed in it.  After a little over a week the pickles became a fantastic mix of spicy, salty, sour, and crunchy.  With any luck I'll get around to making more of these before the kohlrabi season is through and will have some jars to hand out so you can try them yourself.  But until then, you'll just have to take my word for it that they came out awesome and that by not eating them your life is not complete.