Sauerkraut history - don't eat too much!
From:
Kurtze Beschreibung der Natur ... und Gebrauch in Speiß und Trank (1549)
Brassica - Leaf cabbage and head cabbage, leaf cabbage and
and head cabbage / are in Germany in ordinary kitchens/
especially for the manual laborers/ and the common
man / who [have] the largest hardest burden /and take it for daily
food / and grease their hungry stomachs / and as
in Bavaria / sometimes in one day / three or four times
cabbage or sauerkraut is taken / it gives an
unhealthy bad nourishment / and causes a
coarse thick melancholy blood / it ruins the face...
It goes on to tell that it creates fantastical dreams.
Next up some actual instructions for making sauerkraut and preserving leaf vegetables and how to properly prepare the salt water brine. Part of the learning curve was understanding that there were some seeming 99 names for cabbage!