Q: “It’s been 8 days and my red cabbage kimchi is not fermenting. Why?”
A: This could be due to several reasons:
1. Too much salt. Salt slows microbial growth, and even though Lactobacilli (the critters responsible for most veggie ferments) are salt-tolerant, they do have their limits.
2. Not enough pounding or pieces too large: red cabbage in particular has tough leaves. Pounding or massaging the leaves destroys some of the cell walls, making the water and nutrients inside more available to the lactobacilli. The more surface area you expose, the faster the good microbes can get to eating. Think about fermenting a whole (uncut) head of cabbage. It eventually would ferment, but in a much longer time frame as shredded sauerkraut.
3. Low quality vegetables: conventionally grown (not organic) vegetables may contain pesticides or lack trace minerals, both of which may interfere with the bacterial activity getting started.
4. Using unfiltered tap water: if you use tap water in most cities, it (by design) contains chlorine and chloramines, which are added to kill microbes. If you use this water instead of filtering it out, you are handicapping the good microbes in a big way. If you made your brine with tap water, it may take a lot longer for fermentation to begin (if at all).
Author and founder of Fermenters Club. I’ve been fermenting food for 14 years.
In 2024, I published my first book, Fearless Fermenting.
When not stuffing things into jars, I enjoy permaculture gardening, cooking, yoga, writing, and studying cosmology and esoteric traditions.
