Bought the cool Pickling Crock - need recipes for fermenting...sauerkraut, pickles...

You use a big stainless steel bowl to start the sauerkraut. With the salt as mentioned in the thread.

But to go all mystical. You should do it at the full moon and let it rest overnight night under a oak tree. Then pack it into the pickling jar.

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Actually, There might be some science behind that folk recipe. Natural yeasts in the air are vital to many things---like Sourdough breads etc. Oak trees have a very complex set of yeasts living on them..and moonlight with cool weather gets some of those microorganisms really excited.

After that pack it into the crock. Just make sure it's all covered and air tight...use a baggie filled with brine to cover the surface.

I learned to make sauer kraut from my dad, who learned from his grandma. Just layer shredded cabbage and picking salt until you reach the top of the crock. Then weight it down and let it ferment for several weeks. Skim the foam off the top as it accumulates. My dad pressure cans his but it does kill the healthy bacteria in it.
Good luck! Once you've made home made sauer kraut you can't go back to store bought.

This looks lovely. If you like pickled cabbage beyond sauerkraut, consider kimchee, which can be used as a garnish on various western foods in additional to its traditional dishes. Also, you can tailor to taste - heat, other spices, vegetables to include. Here are a few recipes I've used and liked:
traditional - Kimchibulgogi.com/pogi-baechu-napa-kimchi/
quick - Seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/02/quick-kimchi-recipe.html
easy - Maangchi.com/recipe/easy-kimchi
by a master (David Chang) - Notderbypie.com/kimchi/

This looks lovely. If you like pickled cabbage beyond sauerkraut, consider kimchee, which can be used as a garnish on various western foods in additional to its traditional dishes. Also, you can tailor to taste - heat, other spices, vegetables to include. Here are a few recipes I've used and liked:
traditional - Kimchibulgogi.com/pogi-baechu-napa-kimchi/
quick - Seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/02/quick-kimchi-recipe.html
easy - Maangchi.com/recipe/easy-kimchi
by a master (David Chang) - Notderbypie.com/kimchi/

I make sauerkraut in a plastic Japanese pickling jar. The key measurement is 1.5 teaspoons of salt per pound of cabbage (about 19 g salt per 1 kg cabbage for sensible people who use the metric system). I think I picked up this key ratio from Alice Waters' "The Art of Simple Food" but other cookbooks/recipes should have similar guidelines.

Just shred the cabbage, then rub the salt in. The cabbage usually generates enough liquid so that it is fully submerged under my jar's press. You can also make a cup of brine to add to this if you feel the cabbage is not generating enough liquid by itself.

Let ferment for a week and start tasting. Once it has reached the desired sourness (about ten days for me) I put into jars and refrigerate. No fancy canning techniques for me.

More recently, I've been adding a small amount of caraway seeds and juniper berries, maybe a teaspoon of each. I put these in a linen spice bag (washable, reusable) that I bought from Amazon. You could just wrap in a small piece of cheesecloth as well. Some people are fine with having caraway seeds in their finished sauerkraut. I would rather have a hint of caraway and juniper, not have it a dominant flavor. Admittedly, my natural inclination is toward simplicity.

There are plenty of deadtrees books on pickling. Try the library.

Of course, you can just search this website. Go to Google/Bing/Yahoo and type in "pickles food52.com" (this site's built-in search engine is -- ahem -- decidedly weak compared to a real search engine).

Have fun with it.