Making Sauerkraut for New Year’s
On Wednesday I started my sauerkraut for our New Year’s Day tradition. We’ve been eating sauerkraut for New Year’s in my family since I can remember. We used to go out to my grandma’s house and she would have a big roaster full of sauerkraut, sausage and dumplings. When my grandma died my dad took over. He developed his own special recipe, changing it each year to make it better. It’s not your typical kraut recipe, it includes carrots, apples, tomatoes and all kinds of delicious goodness. For a few photos of my dad cooking on New Year’s and the recipe see this post.
Sauerkraut that ferments at cooler temperatures – 65 or lower – has the best flavor, color and vitamin C content. The fermentation process takes longer at these temperatures, around 4-6 weeks. That’s probably why it’s traditionally made in the fall. Looks like I’m making mine at the right time, it should be ready by mid-December and waiting in the fridge for New Years!
Making sauerkraut is quite easy all you need is cabbage (red or green), salt, and time (generally 3T of salt for every 5 lbs of cabbage). First you slice up the cabbage as thinly as you’d like, I usually do some really thin and some thick for variety. Then you put some sliced cabbage in a bowl and sprinkle salt over it, then smash with a wooden spoon or potato masher and mix. Continue adding cabbage and salt and mixing and smashing until the bowl is half full.
When the bowl is about half full I let it sit for 10-15 minutes to take a break and to let the cabbage wilt a little. This makes it easier to stuff into the glass jar I’m using as a fermenting crock. Transfer the cabbage to the jar, smash it down and continue working until all the cabbage is salted, smashed and packed into the jar. Let the cabbage sit overnight, if the brine hasn’t covered the cabbage make some brine (1.5 T of salt to 1 quart of water) and pour over the cabbage. I use a canning jar to weigh down the cabbage because I’m not comfortable using plastic. Let it sit for 4-6 weeks until it stops bubbling and it tastes like sauerkraut. You really can’t get much simpler. I’m hoping to try a few of the recipes in my The Joy of Pickling, Revised Edition
When I was making this I thought about all the women in past generations of my family that spent time each fall making sauerkraut for New Year’s. Connecting with our food heritage is such a wonderful thing. Hopefully our nieces & nephew will grow up with fond memories of eating Grandpa’s Famous Sauerkraut on New Year’s and continue the tradition with their families.
Do you have a specific food or menu that has been passed down through the generations of your family?
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A Trip to Cabela’s
I come from a family of avid hunters. My grandpa had to hunt to survive since he was very poor and his dad died when he was young. He passed his skills and love of hunting down to his sons, one of which was my dad. My grandparents bought a big piece of land in rural Ohio and built a hunting cabin for the family. I got my hunting license when I was in 7th grade, although I never really got into hunting all that much.
Mr Chiots didn’t come from a hunting family, so he was introduced to it when he joined our family. He’s really gotten interested in it this year and finally took the Ohio Hunter Safety Course and got his license.
He’s planning to go deer hunting in November with my dad. Since Mr Chiots is a new hunter, he needs a few things. Yesterday we headed down to Cabela’s in West Virginia with my parents to look around and pick up a few hunting supplies.
It’s a fascinating store, even if you’re not into hunting. They have all kinds of sporting goods from camping and fishing, to grilling and home sausage making supplies. They have all kind of animal scenes from around the world and a huge walk-through aquarium. It’s a lot like going to a natural history museum. They also have a white-tail deer exhibit featuring many award winning deer. We ate in their cafe, which features a lot of different game (we had elk burgers for lunch).
I know hunting is something that not everyone is in to and not everyone agrees with. In our area of the country it’s very popular and many people still enjoy it. Wild game supplies most of the meat we eat, except for the chicken we buy from our local farm and an occasional beef roast from the farm as well.
I’ve eaten my fair share of interesting things in my lifetime, which can’t be avoided when your dad is an avid hunter and you grow up in another country. I have eaten; bison, ostrich, elk, wild boar, venison, squirrel, alligator, and various interesting cuts of beef that aren’t popular here in the U.S. The strangest thing I’ve eaten is fried ants, they’re very popular in Colombia. They kind of taste like popcorn.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten (fruit, vegetable, meat or insect)?
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Candles, Cookies, and Presents
I was busy all day yesterday getting ready for the my oldest niece’s birthday party, which she decided was going to be a princess tea party. I was in charge of making the cake, which I decided would be fun to make small individual cakes that looked like petit fours (my sister still made a regular cake to put candles on). I decorated them with lavender from the garden, perfectly elegant for a ladies’ tea (the icing was colored with wild blackberries, nothing artificial about that)!
I spent the weekend making her gift, which was a colorful tutu. Since she’s getting interested in ballet she thought it was great, along with the ballet slippers complete with laces.
I picked some flowers from the garden to decorate the table, and my sister got out her best china for all the little girls to use. All the little girls arrived in their frilliest dresses ready for an evening of fun. After several princess themed crafts, they enjoyed eating all the tea snacks which my niece picked out. The menu consisted of: cookie press cookies, little smokies in a blanket, mini muffins, mini tea sandwiches, pumpkin rolls, cake and peppermint tea. Now that’s a menu!!!
It was a fun evening for all involved. The little girls really enjoyed having a tea and the crafts were a big hit.
I have many fond memories of birthday parties when I was growing up. I think this is a party she will remember for a lifetime, have you ever seen such happy little girl?
Any fun, non-garden related events you’ve enjoyed attending recently?
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Weird or Interesting? You Decide
I am one of the new writers over at Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op, head on over there today and check out my post. I wrote about how most of my friends either tell me I’m the weirdest or the most interesting person they know. Why? Because I grow some of my own food, collect rain water, keep bees in my backyard, shop at farmer’s markets, buy raw milk and make everything from scratch (I mean everything, even crackers, oh yeah and maple syrup).
Weird or interesting, what do you think?
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Lightening the Load
This past weekend we had a garage sale with our friends. Since we live in a community with a front gate and restricted access, we had the garage sale at their house in town. There’s nothing like having a garage sale to make you realize how much stuff you really have that you don’t need.
Since we had our basement waterproofed this summer, we carried everything up the attic. Before putting it back down into the basement, we’ve been sorting through stuff and getting rid of all those unnecessary things you accumulate over time.
It’s kind of funny because this is our 3rd garage sale and we’ve gotten a reputation in town for having great stuff. Everything is nicely organized by genre, we have a kitchen table, holiday table, housewares table, electronic section, etc. It’s perhaps the most organized garage sale you’ve ever seen.
Having a garage sale is a great way to remind yourself that you have too much stuff already and don’t need more! I find that it really keeps me from buying things I don’t need throughout the year. We’ve just about exhausted our supply of “stuff” though so I don’t know if we’ll have enough for another garage sale any time soon. Since we’re not buying new things we aren’t accumulating things to sell later.
All-in-all it was a successful sale. I took 3 car loads of stuff to their house and only brought home a few boxes (and those all went to the Goodwill the next day). So my house is much lighter, as is my mind, after getting rid of a lot of things I didn’t need.
What about you, do you have garage/yard sales or do you just like to go to them?
