Traditional pickling or Lacto fermentation?

I was blessed to attend a local day of talks about Fermenting.  Since this is new to me, I decided to share my experiences with you. I am by no means an expert, I’m just learning and experimenting to see what will work for my family.
So far I have a jar of saurkraut, a jar of kimchi, and a jar of leeks fermenting in the pantry.

The leeks have a weight holding them down so I wrapped a towel and rubber band around them. The saurkraut is almost done maybe another 2 or 3 days before I move it into the refrigerator.  The kimchi is new today so I am guessing a couple of weeks.  I am very interested in the natural advantages to lacto fermenting as well as the cost savings in that I don’t have to process it, just store it.
I also started a small batch of milk kefir that I am excited to try for breakfast smoothie on Monday.  The next on my fermentation bucket list is kombucha and I will hopefully have a batch going tomorrow night.
I still have traditional pickles in the pantry and will continue to process some of our food stores in the traditional manner like the Dilly Beans and Salsa.


So while I explore lacto fermentation, I’m not totally abandoning my traditional methods.

This was originally posted over on Unionvale Mom Spot, and since the original posting I have made several batches of sauer kraut , lacto fermented pickles, 2 successful batches of kimchi, and a batch of lacto-fermented asparagus. I am looking forward to the 2013 growing season and creating more healthy options for my family.