I made sauerkraut! I can’t remember if I’ve ever fully finished making it before. Something usually goes wrong for me, like I forget about it for too long, or pieces will float to the surface and go moldy. This time it went perfectly. I got the recipe from here, it was really simple. You just need salt, cabbage, and some jars.
I cut up a head of cabbage and put it into two bowls. There is a lot of cabbage and I didn’t have a big enough bowl to do it in one. I also used pickling salt instead off the salt they used in the recipe, because I didn’t have sea salt. I also ended up using more salt and if I make it again, I would add more. Pickling salt is big chunks. I think it needed more to make up for the difference.
After you add the salt you let it sit for a bit and then you have to squeeze, or mash the cabbage, to get the salt in and for the cabbage to release the liquid. I squeezed it with my hands while my spouse and I watched TV. This method took awhile and I got cabbage EVERYWHERE. It wish I had taken a photo of the couch after. I made a mess. It was fun (not sarcasm, it was fun).
Once you are finished that process you then pack your cabbage into some jars. One head of cabbage filled both of these 1L jars. I didn’t get enough liquid out of the cabbage for everything to get submerged, so I made the brine solution from the Prairie Homestead recipe, and made sure none of the cabbage was floating to the top. In the wide mouth jar some of the cabbage kept coming loose, so I weighed it down with a smaller mason jar. I made sure the lids were only sitting on top, to let the gas escape and then left it for a couple days longer than a week.
It turned out great, it’s healthy, and I plan on keeping some on hand all the time from now on. Speaking of healthy, I also grew some of my own sprouts.
At first I tried using a mason jar with my new sprouting lids. I was so excited to try them out. I soaked the seeds over night and when I went to drain them the next day they wouldn’t drain. The seeds formed this gelatinous goo around them, like chia seeds do and no matter how hard I shook the jar, the water wouldn’t come out.
As I knew it would, everything ended up rotting and going bad. I had to dump everything out and start over. Next I tried again without soaking the seeds. I shook them around with water and drained the jar. That worked fine, but when I went to water them again the next day, they were gelatinous and wouldn’t drain. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I didn’t hear anyone else complain about alfalfa seeds doing that. Well guess what. They weren’t alfalfa seeds.
I had bought arugula seeds. I bought these seeds years ago by the way, and they still sprouted no problem. I’m impressed! I decided to try again with an old sprouting tray I had.
I sprinkled the seeds over a damp paper towel. I messed up in this photo. They are supposed to be sitting on the white tray (pictured in the photo with the growing sprouts), this green tray is just the base. The white tray is a draining grate that helps the seeds drain so they don’t rot.
The seeds grew really fast and I had sprouts in under a week. They had a little nip to them too. Arugula sprouts are spicy! I will grow more of them, but I really want to try my new sprout jar with the right seeds. I will buy some alfalfa seeds and try again.
As for the snake orgy, I’m not sure if that’s what they were actually doing, but there is a group of snakes that live under this rock and comes out every spring after a couple warm days. When I saw them for the first time this year, they were clumped in this ball. I left them to whatever shenanigans they were getting up to and know I’ll be seeing them throughout the Summer.
Lobster Shorts 