Late nights on the farm: Making Sauerkraut

Last week I posted some information on cooking with cabbage. The past two evenings I was at work making sauerkraut. We're getting close to cabbage inundation at the moment, so I decided that it's time to start getting some sauerkraut ready for the year ahead. It's an amazing source of vitamin C over the winter and a great addition to a variety of meals and dishes.

For the first time, I did both green and purple cabbage. I love the contrasting colours right after putting them into jars. I'm also going to try sauerkraut made from cabbage, carrots, onions and beets, plus an assortment of herbs for new flavours.

You can see the difference in colour after aging. The jar on the left was made last fall by our neighbours, John and Donna at the Glen Valley Artichoke Farm. On the right is my sauerkraut immediately after putting it in the jar (i.e. before fermentation).

Fermenting is an amazing way to preserve food for the year in a way that maintains nutrients. If you're interested in making sauerkraut, here's a recipe that provides you with the basics. If you want to learn more about fermentation, check out the Wild Fermentation website maintained by Sandor Ellix Katz. His book, Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods, is an amazing resource for getting into fermentation.

Recipes: Cabbage, Peasant Food

Cabbage is now in full season, but it isn’t often recognized as a romantic vegetable. Rather, in many societies cabbage has long been a staple peasant food. This is still reflected in its price; cabbage is one of the best market bargains.

Cabbage actually comes from the same family as broccoli, cauliflower, turnip, kale, canola, brussels sprouts and arugula. These hearty greens are prized for their health benefits and cabbage is no exception, particularly when eaten raw or fermented. Cabbage is a nice green to work with because it has more texture and crunch than other greens and a stronger taste that compliments meats, particularly bacon, pancetta and anchovies.

If cabbage is a peasant food, this is testament to its versatility and hardiness. Different varieties were adapted for use in varying climates. We grow approximately five main season green cabbage varieties, two red varieties and three winter varieties. Cabbages can store for up to five months. The plant’s nutritional value provides a source of vitamin C in the form of sauerkraut through many harsh winters. It is the basic ingredient for coleslaw in summer and winter alike.

There are a number of recipes that feature cabbage that go beyond sauerkraut and coleslaw. Below are some favorites.

Preparing Cabbage

If you are a cabbage affectionado, there is no substitute for a good mandoline for slicing cabbage. Very thin cabbage slices make for the best texture in coleslaw, soups, stews and sauerkraut.

We purchased ours, pictured here, at the Home Hardware on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. It's Slovenian-made, but also pricey as far as kitchen tools go (and awkward to store). A sharp knife, of course, is a good substitute.

Cabbage Gratin

Ingredients
Butter and freshly grated Parmesan for the dish
1 1/2 lbs green cabbage, diced in 2-inch squares
1/3 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/4 cup cream
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 eggs
3 tbsp chopped parsley or dill
Salt and white pepper

Preparation
Preheat oven to 375F. Butter gratin dish and coat sides with cheese. Boil cabbage, uncovered, in salted water for 5 min. Drain, rinse, press out as much water as possible. Whisk remaining ingredients until smooth, add cabbage, pour into dish. Bake until firm and lightly browned, about 50 minutes. Serve with sour cream flavoured with mustard, curry sauce or creamy tomato sauce.

Braised Cabbage with Bacon and Thyme

From Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie

Ingredients

1 pint Chicken or Vegetable stock

6 slices Bacon

1/2 a handful of fresh thyme leaves (or 2 tbsp dried)

1 white/green cabbage, halved and very finely sliced

2 tbsp Butter

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation

Place stock, bacon and thyme in a pan, bring to a boil and then sprinkle in the sliced cabbage. Mix, put lid on pot and boil for 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to a simmer and cook until the cabbage is a consistency you prefer. Top up with additional stock if you think it's reducing too much. Add the butter, some olive oil and season. Serve immediately.

Variation: We make a variation of this recipe, adding sliced carrots and onions.

Our CSA boxes this week

In case you're wondering what goes into our Community Supported Agriculture boxes, here's the list for this week:

1 Fennel Bulb (Large in full shares, small in half shares)
1 Crown Broccoli (Full shares only)
1 bunch Dill
1 bunch Beets
1 large Cabbage
1 Long English Cucumber
1 bunch Green Onions
2 lbs Sieglinde Potatoes
1 bunch Spinach
1 bunch Kale
1 bunch Rainbow Chard
2 heads lettuce (1 red butter, 1 green butter)

Here are some notes about the box contents this week:

Fennel

In case fennel is new to you, you can find some tips on cutting fennel bulbs on this blog post. What to do with Fennel? There are a couple of ideas at the end of the blog post, but I would also suggest chopping it and adding the chevrons to coleslaw (with the cabbage this week, for example). I like it roasted as well (with the potatoes, for example). There are other recipe ideas on Cookthink.com here.

The Greens

In case you missed it, I added a blog post about cooking with greens on the blog last week. In addition to that post, I can offer a summer salad recipe for using a variety of veggies each week. The butter lettuces are great in sandwiches and in salads.

Cabbage

OK, this is a vegetable that brings out the Ukrainian roots in me. Not only does fresh cabbage make awesome coleslaw, it can be made into Sauerkraut for future use. In case you're interested in making Sauerkraut, here's a good recipe. I must point out that making fermented sauerkraut and then storing it in your fridge is the best way to eat it, providing an amazing flavour and a variety of health benefits (it's a great source of vitamin C, for example). Whatever you do, I recommend that you don't process the finished kraut (provided, of course, that you have sufficient fridge space to store the unprocessed product). Processing sauerkraut will destroy much of the nutrient value.

And for a few more ideas, check out these recipes from Cookthink.com and these from Smitten Kitchen. And I haven't even touched on Borscht or Cabbage Rolls . . . there will be a cabbage post later this week -- keep your eyes on the blog.

First week of July on the farm

The sun and heat finally arrived this week and we have left June-uary behind. the fields are looking much better as green begins to take over the colour scheme. Here are some images of the farm from the past few days. Above, row cover over carrots and parsnips keeps the rust fly out. It also keeps heat and moisture in, helping to accelerate growth. The carrots and parsnips have been weeded this past week. Squash are on the left of the cover, onions on the right.

The shallots are looking very nice at the moment (although this bed is close to needing a weeding). Shallots and onions respond to the change in daylight hours after solstice and begin bulbing up.

There's something about the symmetry of some crops growing that looks stunning. Here's an arial shot of our Romaine and Red Oak Leaf lettuces hard at work.

The same can be said for the cabbage. We had our first cabbage harvest this past week. The variety above will be ready in a couple of week. We've tried to plant varieties that will come on consecutively through the season (rather than all at once). I'm still waiting for one of the farmers markets to hold a Cabbage Festival -- enough of the berry fetish! It's krauting time!

The salmonberries are just finishing up. Following them are the thimbleberries and, of course, the actual food crops we grow in our fields.

Above, thimbleberries. Below, flowering blackberries (a feast for the bees).

And the strawberries finally perked up. Nirmal shows off some of the beautiful (although small) harvest.

The redwing blackbirds nest on our farm, offering a great song and fantastic bug-control functions. I love the redwing blackbird, partly because it's one of the familiar birds from growing up on the prairies.

The raspberries have formed fruit and will be ready in a couple of weeks.

Here's an early planting of beans. I'll expect to be harvesting them by the end of the month.

The Fraser River has been very full for a long period this year. Above is a dyke on 88th, just of 264th in Langley (near our farm). Notice on the farm left that the field is flooded -- the dyke is over capacity and a lot of land on the area along the river here is flooded.

Our pasture areas are flooded and there are low areas of our vegetable fields we haven't been able to cultivate this season. This is the water level on my boots walking down to the fields through the pasture. All of the water means that it's a brutal year for mosquitos.