Ok, I think I've jumped into the deep end of the pool now, folks. Let's just hope I remember how to swim. The cabbage was probably ready to be harvested a week ago, but hey, what do I know? Anyway, I took my trusty knife down to the garden along with a large black garbage bag. The cabbage was really no problem to harvest and I just cut away the leaves that were eaten by bugs and fed those to the pigs. (who loved them, by the way)
Eventually I loaded 8 beautiful, heavy heads of cabbage into the garbage bag and Jeremy hefted it up into the Polaris so I could bring them up to the house. Now what? I guess I had secretly been procrastinating on harvesting them because I dreaded not knowing how to get started making the sauerkraut. Oh, well, how hard can it be? (more fits of giggles from my guys!)
Making sauerkraut really isn't that hard....at least according to the cookbooks I've been reading. First you slice the cabbage in thin strips. Thank goodness for my old Cuisinart. What would have taken me an hour or more took only minutes using the handy machine.
Next the cabbage has to be "worked". For every 5 lbs. of cabbage one tablespoon of unrefined sea salt is added. Then, you take your hands and squeeze the cabbage, fold it over and continue to "work" it for 5 minutes until juices start to flow. Then this concoction is put into the huge crock.
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Ok, you get the idea.....this took a while and my arm is still sore from working the cabbage.
Yeah, that's a lot of cabbage to process. Don't you just love my "counter"? Yes, we're still working with folding tables in the kitchen. But I have an announcement to make: This afternoon we are finally ordering our kitchen cabinets! Yippee! I may not have a fully functioning completed kitchen until sometime in October, but at least now it will be in the works. Let the dancing and celebrating begin!
Just about the time my arm was about to fall off, I finished with the heads of cabbage. Can you see one of the weights inside the crock on top of the shredded cabbage? Yes, that's one of the weights that fell off the table 2 weeks ago and hit Joel's foot when he passed out in the kitchen. No wonder his foot is still hurting him.
I placed the second weight on top of the cabbage and put the lid in place. The directions in the cookbook says to put the crock in a cool dark place for 6 weeks. This space under the only 2 lower cabinets I currently have in the kitchen seemed like the perfect spot as there is an air conditioning vent directly behind the crock streaming cool air 24 hours a day. Now we just wait and see if this worked.
Who wants to be my official taste tester? Any volunteers? Really, no one???? Ok, I guess I'll have to taste it first and let you know how it turns out.
One more veggie completed,
Debbie
