Rutabaga, Rhubarb, Beet & Celery root (celeriac), Lacto-Ferment - Made Feb. 9/21

- approx. 2 cups of chopped frozen rhubarb

- 1 med/large rutabaga coarsely grated

- 5 slices (frozen) of a large Italian zucchini diced (approx 1 1/2 cups)

- 4 leaves of green cabbage finely chopped

- 1 medium/large onion diced
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

- 1 small celery root (celeriac) coarsely grated
- 4 med. red beets coarsely grated

- 8 med/small "wild" apples cored and diced

- 1/2 a large zip-lock bag of frozen chopped chard (leafy greens) (approx. 1 1/2 cups)

- 2 Tbsp of Himalayan pink salt

I mixed everything together... filling 3 liter mason jars firmly packed to the shoulder & one 500 ml. jar 1/2 filled.  Since my "warm" cupboard over my stove isn't so warm these days, I put them covered in front of one of my rads to begin... It took awhile, but finally on Feb 16 they were fermenting strongly and could be moved to the fridge to stabilize and be eaten... I think I won't have more of the problem with the mold that I talk about below now that they are fermenting well... full of beneficial bacteria and NO room left for mold... I hope!

Update: Feb. 13/21...  We've Had a week of VERY COLD weather, so even the place in front of my rad hasn't been so warm...  so this is fermenting slowly.  For the second time ever, I've also had a problem with mold...  Both batches that had this problem were slow to start fermenting.  The first one I thought was due to a fair amount of sugar in the mix, and this time the mixture started off VERY cold as it included a lot of frozen ingredients and the ambient temperature has been low which hasn't helped...  I've done what I did with the 1st batch that developed mold... I've scraped off the mold and added an extra 1/4 tsp. of salt to the top of each of the jars.  Hopefully this works this time just like it did last time... In the future I think if I have reason to believe a batch will be slow to begin fermenting, for whatever reason, I'll add the extra salt to the top of the jars just in case... The weather is also scheduled to get warmer over the next few days and the warmth REALLY seems to make a BIG difference!