# first harvest in 2017 - cabbage!



## chuckwood (Jan 7, 2017)

We had a nice snow last nite, around 4 inches, and the low tonite is gonna be around 8. So I had to harvest all my cabbage. I planted it too late in the season, so I let it go this long to try and get the heads up to some size before cutting them. Cabbage and brussels sprouts seem to tolerate cold pretty well, but not 8. So this afternoon I picked almost 2 bushels. This week I'll be making sauerkraut with this cabbage. Slice it all up in a food processor, and then salting it down and placing it all in a large ceramic crock to ferment. Kraut making seems to go better in the colder time of the year, if your kraut gets too warm the fermentation process can go haywire. Tonite I just ate the very last of the big batch of kraut I made in early summer '16. Still good! And good for you.........


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## amberg (Jan 26, 2017)

chuckwood said:


> We had a nice snow last nite, around 4 inches, and the low tonite is gonna be around 8. So I had to harvest all my cabbage. I planted it too late in the season, so I let it go this long to try and get the heads up to some size before cutting them. Cabbage and brussels sprouts seem to tolerate cold pretty well, but not 8. So this afternoon I picked almost 2 bushels. This week I'll be making sauerkraut with this cabbage. Slice it all up in a food processor, and then salting it down and placing it all in a large ceramic crock to ferment. Kraut making seems to go better in the colder time of the year, if your kraut gets too warm the fermentation process can go haywire. Tonite I just ate the very last of the big batch of kraut I made in early summer '16. Still good! And good for you.........
> 
> View attachment 549138



You know that you can always ship them to me and I will process them for you! I live in Va. you know. LOL.


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## chuckwood (Jan 27, 2017)

amberg said:


> You know that you can always ship them to me and I will process them for you! I live in Va. you know. LOL.



It's too late, it's already turning into sauerkraut. Shipping kraut in those glass bottles wouldn't be too practical!


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## amberg (Jan 27, 2017)

chuckwood said:


> It's too late, it's already turning into sauerkraut. Shipping kraut in those glass bottles wouldn't be too practical!
> 
> View attachment 554225



Looking good from here! How do you keep it stored? Never made any kraut before.


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## chuckwood (Jan 27, 2017)

amberg said:


> Looking good from here! How do you keep it stored? Never made any kraut before.



I let it ferment for around a month or so and then pack it all into half gallon canning jars. When doing this it's important to leave the jar lids on loose. If not, they can blow up from gases being released during the fermentation process which will still be continuing a bit inside the jars. If you put the lids on real tight, then all the jars will have pressure in them. If the jars under pressure are all placed side by side like that, a chain reaction can occur when one jar blows up the ones adjacent to it also blow and you can lose it all. Never happened to me but I've read stories about it happening.


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## amberg (Jan 30, 2017)

We did have a jar of green beans break once that caused two more to break, not sure what caused that though. There were 80 jars on each shelf, and I am pretty sure they were touching each other. I think we put them up before they had time to cool enough.


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## chuckwood (Jan 30, 2017)

amberg said:


> We did have a jar of green beans break once that caused two more to break, not sure what caused that though. There were 80 jars on each shelf, and I am pretty sure they were touching each other. I think we put them up before they had time to cool enough.



I place mine on the kitchen counter and let em cool for a day or two. Then I remove the bands so I can reuse them on the next batch.


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