Salt by weight,never by spoon
Spoons lie. Two percent of the total weight of cabbage and water has not failed me yet, and a cheap kitchen scale costs less than one ruined crock.
The week theplums came in
There is a short stretch when every tree on the street gives up at once. Halve them, stone them, and accept that the kitchen will be sticky until Sunday.
Keep it cool,keep it under
Almost every failed ferment I have made was something floating above the brine. A small saucer and a clean stone solve nearly all of it.