So @gnoib has the great thread on cold smoking and meat preservation where we discussed old methods of food preservation. Today my wife said she wanted to can the last batch of sauerkraut that’s been fermenting in the cellar and I thought I’d share this cabbage preservation technique. We use two stone crocks. One is about 4 gallons, the other about 15 gallons capacity. We use a Kitchen-aide with shredder attachment to shred the cabbage and then pack it in the crocks with canning and pickling salt. There is a formula for how much salt for pound of cabbage, but we just go by taste. As long as it tastes quite salty and you pack hard enough to create brine to cover the cabbage it works great. We put a weighted disk on the top of the cabbage to keep everything below the brine and wait—usually 6 weeks sometimes more depending on when we have time to can it. Canning destroys the probiotic effects, but allows us to store it for years. We can in quart and pint glass jars. We use kraut for livening up things from sandwiches to Mac and cheese. But our favorite dish with kraut is sauerkraut pizza! If you like sauerkraut you should definitely try sauerkraut pizza. Here’s a pick of me tasting the big crock before canning this morning.
I put it in omelettes while cooking. Anyway, I have been tempted to get one of those fermenting outfits until I look to see the prices and remember why I will just buy mine from the store. I can't really get cabbage to do well around here anyway. If not the heat than the insects.
Thanks. We grow/preserve a lot of food because we just like it. It’s better tasting and healthier than commercial products. But I’ll put in a shameless plug for being prepared for the future here as well. Having a wide variety of preserved food made it possible for us to not have to grocery shop or mess with pick-ups/deliveries during this pandemic. It was well worth the effort.
I’ve heard people talk about those fermenters. I suppose they make things look a little more sanitary, but people have been fermenting for centuries without them. Some people just ferment small batches in glass jars. I hear you on growing the cabbage. Some years they don’t do well. Some years they split and the slugs get in them. I will try the omelette sometime. Sounds good.
To do in glass jars safely without the plumbing on top, one has to be vigilant about maintaining their jars. I am a more, "Oh yeah, I forgot about starting that last month. Better check on it" kind of guy. I don't really have a slug problem. I have caterpillar/winged critters problem. Part of it is because most years it stays warm late. I have been getting some okay purple leaf cabbage crops but it would take a half acre of those to produce as much as a few fat heads of cabbage. Just more effort than I want to put into it. I have the same problem with most of the brassica family. Unless it is a leaf variety, forget it around this area. I am done with trying head cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi. I will just buy them.
Yes, that’s the nice thing about crocks. Doesn’t matter if you forget about it for months. A couple years ago my wife broke her wrist in the fall after making kraut. By the time she was out of a cast etc. she was too busy with critters (lambing, kidding, calving, foaling) to can it. I didn’t have time either because I was doing her chores etc. while she recuperated. Anyway, we forgot all about it for over a year. Probably more like 18 months. It had spoiled on top more than is typical, but it was still “good” and quite tasty underneath. Do you garden all organically, or are you open to using some insecticides? We try to limit insecticide use, especially now that we have bees again, but sometimes I use an insecticide called Asana XL. It’s a synthetic pyrethroid so is very safe as it’s very similar to natural pyrethrins produced by chrysanthemums. It also lasts a long time if it doesn’t rain or you don’t use a sprinkler much. It’s death on everything from moths to grasshoppers to vine beetles/borers. It is a restricted use pesticide because it’s toxic to fish and other aquatics. There is a lot to be said for growing things that work well and buying what doesn’t though. It just makes sense when time and resources are limited.
The only two things I use chemicals on are in-ground yellow jacket nests and ant mounds. Haven't had a problem with ants in awhile. I usually have a yellow jacket nest or two a year to dispatch. I built a few walls with those block retainer stones and yellow jackets invariably set up nests under and around them every year. One is a long raised bed that was supposed to be an herb bed but never quite got all herbed up. The others are I used low block walls maybe 50-60 feet long each on the front of some garden patches on sloped ground just to hold in the soil and water. I use termidor for those applications. It is a commercial applicator version of fipronil that binds tightly with the soil so I don't have to worry about it translocating. I get a few ounces from a relative and it lasts awhile since it only takes half a spoon full per gallon of water. Beyond that I just adaptive techniques. For instance I know that japanese beetles are fond of certain plants and only last a few weeks around here in big numbers so I plant their favored meals near my veg patches as sacrifices---roses and sunflowers. I move most everything around every year and I plant little clumps all over the place of any given veg instead of long rows of the same plant so it is more likely some makes it to my belly. Deer are my biggest problem overall so I plant things they don't favor or I use physical barriers. I use hoops made out of fencing to protect green beans and squash. I have a permanent cage I put most of my tomatoes in that is 6 feet high 8 feet wide and 50 feet long. I plant rows along each side of the fence and use the fence to tie them up on. Other things I do is encourage wildlife to mix in. I foster a healthy frog/toad population in my property, bees and butterflies and birds. As long as it isn't a copperhead, I let snakes set up wherever they want to be.
You have a nice garden set up. I like your idea of planting all over the place. We kind of stumbled into that the last couple years. We always had one big garden plot but it’s a quarter mile from home. We wanted some tomatoes, peppers, etc. close so you could just grab a tomato for lunch etc. So we put in a couple raised beds (old metal stock tanks) in the driveway. It was great. You can really do fun things with soil in small raised beds too. Anyway, long story short, we used up all the old stock tanks I had around and all the ones I could find last spring from neighbors. Now I have something like 12-13 of them in two counties. LOL. So, we learned that having the same crop in numerous locations really helps guarantee a harvest. Deer are hard to handle sometimes. Where I grew up in Colorado they were hard on gardens. Here I grow them enough field corn, soybeans, and alfalfa they have little interest in garden veggies. Thanks for sharing about your garden. It’s fun to learn about how people deal with different climates and pests.
Yep. Sounds nicer in print LOL. Groundhog still climbs the tomato fence but I can out eat him so it's all good. I am always trying new things and keeping what works. For instance I have become fond of growing potatoes in food grade 5 gallon buckets I get from the local Nestle plant for free. Just drill a few holes in the bottom. Don't get as many per plant but it is a hell of a lot easier to dump the buckets out on top the ground than it is to dig potatoes in the ground in the scorching July heat.
I agree digging potatoes stinks. We used to break at least one potato fork a year when we grew potatoes in the ground. The last couple years we put them in the stock tank raised beds. We use a mix of horse manure, river sand, and rotten logs smashed into bits by running over them with a tractor for soil. It’s so soft you can basically just scoop the potatoes out with your hands. I’ve done sweet potatoes similar to your buckets. We get these 250lb lick tubs of beet molasses for cows in the winter. The tubs are not returnable anymore so we use them for all kinds of things. They are big enough you can keep burying the vines with added soil through the season to make them set more tubers. Then, like you say, no digging, just dump them over! I envy your supply of buckets. We used to get 5 gal pickle buckets from a restaurant but they don’t seem to have any for me anymore. Probably giving them to someone who buys more chicken fried steaks and pie than I do. LOL.
I've only ever had Sauerkraut as a side at Herman ze German. These also have this German cola called Fritz-Kola there.
We here in Germany do not eat Sauerkraut every day - as some think. But it is popular at Christmas markets - among other things.
Btw: It is a very North German thing to pronounce the English "the" as ze. We in the South either speak the "the" correctly - or substitute it with a "se" - if some can't manage a "the".
I like to have a few batches going at all times. I usually let it ferment for about a month before I transfer it to smaller jars and put it in the fridge.
I've wanted to do fermentation but those sets ups are unjustifiably expensive IMO to be just vented jars.
