Sauerkraut day

The cabbage on the south (wet) side of the garden wasn’t looking too good. Two of the heads had split; others looked a bit peaked. The north cabbages were huge and beautiful. It was a good thing Pat and Nancy had a free day yesterday as I was anxious to get the cabbage harvested lest we get more rain in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

They got to our house at 2:00. We went to the garden first to harvest the cabbage along with beets, pablano peppers, kale (for Pat and Nancy to take home), and the very last of the sweet corn (for supper). Here is the cabbage.

The cabbage harvest--good ones in front, bad ones in back

Hilda and Nancy started cleaning the south cabbages. Alas, they were not good. A layer of rotten leaves intervened between not-too-good leaves on the outside and pretty good leaves on the inside. I wondered if the rotten layer dated to the flood days. Hilda made a valiant effort to remove the rot and save the rest. The result was so puny, we voted to not bother with it. We had several nice cabbages as well as a few that we left in the garden for borscht and other things.

Cabbage with a rotten layer, right; the weenie bit that could be salvaged, left

A perfect, tight cabbage head

I got to work with the kraut slicer. I knew just where it was this year. Note that I wore my wire glove to keep from slicing off my fingers. My foot had just healed from the burn. I didn’t need any more injuries.

Slicing  the cabbage on the kraut slicer

Pat started out weighing, salting, mixing, and packing the kraut into the crocks.

Pat mixing salt into 2.5 pounds of sliced cabbage

When all the cabbages were cleaned, Hilda took over the weighing.

Hilda weighs the sliced cabbage in half-pound increments

Nancy took the pictures, which is why we don’t have any photos of her.

We forgot to keep track of how many 2.5 pound batches we processed. Pat’s best estimate was in about 35 pounds. That should be enough, on would hope.

At the end of the process, we had a pile of cabbage cobs….

The pile of cabbage cobs

 And a crock full of sauerkraut. By the time I got home from work today, the weights were completely covered with fluid. Should be a good batch!

The bubbling crock

After the work was done, we gathered at the table. Hilda made gazpacho with produce from the garden. I made bread. We also cooked all of the sweet corn that we picked except 4 ears that went home with Pat and Nancy. There must have been 20 ears, and we ate all but three. In defense of accusations of gluttony, the ears were small. I’m proud of the fact that I kept up with the corn this year, for once. Very few ears got too mature.

Gazpacho and bread for supper

I made peach pie from fresh Michigan Red Havens. As usual, Pat said that people would pay THOUSANDS of dollars to eat at our house. We just like to be sure the help is well fed. 

Pat eats her peach pie