Basic Sauerkraut

Box 6   July 8th and July 12th

Pardon the lateness here, we've had a lot going on from family visits to FINALLY getting all the Garlic out of the ground!! On Sunday we had a few friends over and we dug up all thirteen rows of garlic. Now its happily curing in the barn.

Most of what you see here had the garlic growing in it

The garlic harvest filled up most of our truck bed!!

Some garlic curing

Box #6
Small bag of Lettuce*
Cabbage
Rainbow Green Beans
Carrots
Dragons Egg Cucumber
Zucchini and Pattipan Summer Squash
*we stopped using the compostable bags for now because we heard a lot of feedback that greens were not keeping as long in them due to wilt.

How to make basic Sauerkraut/Kimchee
The secret is salt. Sauerkraut and Kimchee are lacto-fermentd. Vegetables are salt brined and ferment over the course of a week or so to become sour and delicious. The most basic Saurkraut is two ingredients: Cabbage and Salt. I generally prefer to make a hybrid of Sauerkraut and Kimchee (Korean fermented cabbage with lots of seasonings added).
The one I made for this demonstration includes: 1 cabbage, a few carrots, garlic, ginger, chili flakes and salt.

      First I prepare the Cabbage. I chop it into quarters then fine chop it. You could definitely use a food processor to shred the cabbage.
      Next I salt the cabbage. Salting the cabbage pulls the natural waters of the cabbage out if it and reduces or completely eliminates the amount of water you may or may not need to add at the end. I approximate on the salt. When the kraut is packed in Jars, you want the salt brine to "taste like the ocean." In this case I used 2-3 tablespoons of salt to one cabbage.
      Then I crunch the cabbage and salt together with my hands, kind of like making massaged kale salad, but not for as long. Crunching it allows the salt to be worked into the leaves.
        You could stop with ingredients here. If so, allow the salted cabbage to sit with a kitchen towel over the bowl for a few hours to extract water from the cabbage.

     We like things zesty, so I continued by adding some chopped carrot, minced garlic and ginger, and chili flakes. This makes the ferment Kimchee-like, except that Kimchee would generally use a Chinese cabbage like napa or bok choy and would include fish sauce. You could also add grated beet, turnip, or radish if you have those things around.
       After all ingredients stirred together, let the kraut sit covered with a cloth for 3-8 hours. This allows the salt to work its magic and extract the water from the cabbage.

       When I return to the kraut after several hours, the cabbage is wilted/marinaded, and there is a decent bit of liquid in the bottom of the bowl.
         Next I pack the Kraut into a jar. As I do this I try to squish out all the air bubbles. I use a wide mouth quart jar and my fist, but if you have larger hands or would just rather not use your hand, you could the the blunt end of some kitchen utensil.
        Although the cabbage released a decent amount of water, at the end I decided to add about 1/4 cup water to the top of the jar. This allows the kraut to be covered with water. Put a lid loosely on the top of your jar. If your jar is more full, you'll want to set it on a dish. As the kraut ferments its makes bubbles and expands and will push liquid out of the jar onto the counter when the jar is very full.
        Return to your Kraut every day. As I said, it creates bubbles as it ferments, so you need to press it down with a blunt object or hand every day (its ok if you forget a day). This also gives you a good opportunity to taste the kraut, study its progress, and decide what level of fermented you prefer. After five days, a week, or two weeks, whenever you decide you like the level of sour, eat! And begin to store the kraut in the fridge to halt the fermentation process. Yay for probiotic bacteria and the deliciousness they imbue on our food!

after sitting for ~5 hours

liquid drawn by salt

before adding any water

finished Kraut (with added water)

What about those carrot tops??
They add a great flavor to soup stock!! Also small amounts can be chopped and sauteed. After writing about fermenting, I'm feeling inspired to try fermenting some, I'll keep you posted if it turns out well.

Hardneck garlic making true seed. This is what an unpicked garlic scape turns into. This type of garlic seed takes 2 years of planting to form full sized garlic bulbs. Most farmers replant cloves dug up from the previous harvest for faster turn around.