2. Both plants and people have a protective layer that keeps, or is meant to keep, bacteria from entering the organism and causing decay. Plants have complex cell walls, and people have skin for external protection as well …show more content…
Pollan tried Katz’s pickling recipes out on a lengthy list of vegetables including cabbage, carrots, chard, cucumbers, peppers, and turnips. He fermented leafy vegetables, such as the cabbage, in liquid that salt drew out of the leaves themselves, but other vegetables, like cucumbers, were placed in a brine. He made sure not to let the vegetables get exposed to air because they would mold and/or rot. The sauerkraut took three days to begin fermenting, and after three weeks of being in the basement, it was slightly pink and smelled really bad. Katz told him that the smell was caused by bacteria called “sulfate reducers,” and that he should just wait for a while longer. After a month, the awful smell was no longer there, but mold had grown in the crock causing the cabbage to be mushy. His kimchi, carrots, and pickles turned out to be good with just a few little issues (slime on carrots and gray color on pickles), and the chard stems were his