If you ever feel like strangling someone, I have a better idea. ;)

Cabbages are amazing!  I bought this cabbage (and two more) from a nice Amish lady I know several weeks ago and it has been living in our food storage room, which this time of year stays at about 40 degrees F.  Yesterday, I remembered it and lo and behold!  I had it sitting in there top down, and it was trying to grow a couple more little cabbages.  :)  It was also looking a bit gone by, so I decided I'd better use it up asap so it won't go to waste.

I took off all the dried and icky leaves ~ yes, you CAN safely use a cabbage that is beginning to decompose if you will simply strip off all of the ruined parts.  I lost a lot of it, but there was quite a bit left.  Here is all the icky stuff I pulled and cut off:

Here is the cleaned cabbage as well as part of another one I had in the refrigerator.  I made all of this into a batch of sauerkraut:

I have made sauerkraut many times through the years, and most often have simply cut it up as thinly as possible with a good sharp knife.  I've also used a "kraut cutter" (an old fashioned wooden device with sharp blades specifically designed to do this,) but now I use my electric food processor.  It makes it SO easy. 

Here it is, all shredded in a very large bowl:

I added 2 Tablespoons of RealSalt, mixed it in with my hands, and let the shredded cabbage sit for 30 minutes.  Here is what it looked like after wilting a bit with the salt:

Now comes the fun part.  This is what I was referring to in the title of this post.  I use my hands to "squish" the salted cabbage for about 5 minutes with my hands until it is very juice:

I had some of the juice leftover from a previous batch of kraut.  This juice, being raw, is rich in lacto-bacteria and I added it to the new batch to speed up the fermentation.  That batch was made with purple cabbage, hence the color:

I added all of that (this is optional) and also 2 Tablespoons of caraway seeds(optional), mixed it all well and here is what it looked like then:

Then, I packed it firmly into a Pickle-It jar, closed the lid and put on the airlock with water in it.

This will sit (out of direct light) in the kitchen until it is "done."  After some days, I will taste it and see what I think.  When I like the flavor, I'll pack it in a different glass jar and store it in the refrigerator.  It will keep a LONG time and is a wonderfully healthy addition to any meal, as the lacto-bacillus aids digestion.  Of course, the cabbage is good for you too!

It is not necessary to have a Pickl-It jar.  There are other ways.  I used to pack my kraut in a glass or food safe plastic bucket and put water inside 2 zip-lock bags and use that as a weight to keep the kraut below the liquid.  The bag was also big enough to completely cover the top of the ferment.  Some people use a Fido jar.  I have not tried that yet, but plan to.  Some express concern that it might explode.  I will just plan to not be in the kitchen when that happens... ;)