Preserving the Cabbage Harvest
3January 8, 2013 by Buffy
I’ve been dreaming of Spring and a new year of gardening, but today I have to finish up the last of our fall garden canning. Today I am canning sauerkraut. I cut 8 big beautiful heads of cabbage from our garden right before the Arkansas Christmas Blizzard. My husband, Farmer Rick, chopped the cabbage and soaked it in a salt brine (much to my dismay in the middle of my holiday baking.) It has been fermenting in a wine bucket for a couple of weeks now. After skimming off the top layer of scum, (which is an unbelievably stinky job) I have about 2 gallons of cabbage to pack into jars. I process the jars in a boiling water bath to seal. Sauerkraut is ready for the family. Of course the kids won’t be thrilled but, Farmer Rick will be delighted. I’m making a mental note to be sure to do this on a warm day next time, my whole house smells of sauerkraut. I sure wish it was warm enough to open a few windows. Refilling the scentsy and hoping it can handle this smell. Now counting the pops of jars sealing and back to dreaming of planting a Spring garden. . .
I love boiled cabbage- despite the smell in the house. I can’t imagine what sauerkraut would smell like! LOL I, too, am dreaming of the spring and gardens to come.
What a great job on that kraut. Planning a bigger fall garden next year.
My husband is going to read this and I’ll probably be making sauerkraut before I know it.