Gramps Remembers Farm Living

 

1966 - Sauerkraut

After the 4th year of living Under the Ledge on my dad’s farm, mom decided to expand the garden so she could preserve garden crops for the long winter months ahead. Mom thought it would be a clever idea to plant cabbage, lettuce, carrots, beans, peas, beets, turnips, tomatoes, and other crops for late summer harvesting.

A friend of my parents, Arnie Sartorius, sold seedlings from his greenhouse by Gravely Brook. He was a single confirmed bachelor and lived down the road from his mother, Ester Sartorius, who was one of mom’s best friends. Mom would get her started plants from Arnie, such as tomatoes, cucumber, cabbage, pumpkin, and squash plants that Arnie had started in the early spring in his greenhouses.

Our main garden was 300’ wide by 300’ deep. After a neighbor came over to plow the area Dad used his yellow troybilt tiller to turn the freshly plowed area to a pulverized soil to plant in.

Dad staked the rolls and helped place the seeds to the right distance and depth for germination. My sister and I would be responsible for weeding rolls while dad tilled between the rolls of plants. After those seeds sprouted, it was time to plant the new seedlings from Arnie’s greenhouse. My added duties included pumping water from the well and the watering the seedlings to keep them alive.

My sister and I would spend a lot of our days weeding the rolls of plants to keep the garden weed free. My sister did not like weeding, so she convinced some neighbor kids across the river to come over and help weed the garden. In return she threw a tea party as payment for their weeding efforts. 

For weeks in early July. I attended 4-H camp at Camp Bird and while I was away, dad would maintain the garden. While I was at camp, mom purchased 2 goats for milking and upon coming home from camp, it was time to water, feed, and milk the 2 goats.

One afternoon after I had watered and feed the goats in the lower barn, I started running back to the house and landed on a board in the tall grass that had a large 20 penny spike sticking out of it. I yelled as I fell forward and yanked the board and spike off my foot, all the while wailing, then limped to the house. My mom saw me and asked what had happened, she removed my shoe and bloodied sock and saw where the nail and penetrated the foot and came out the top on it. 

She loaded me up in the car and took me to the Borden Clinic in Marinette, WI. Dr Jim Borden saw me right way and after scrubbing and running a small brush thru the wound, said I needed to keep it elevated for a week. I perceived this as good news and I could read and be lazy for bit and said that to mom. Mom retorted “not so fast, we will find other chores for you to do while recuperating.

Upon arriving home, she had me sit on the rocking chair by the phone and told me I would be helping make sauerkraut and relishes for the next week.

Mom had dad and my sister harvest the cabbage, clean them, and bring them by my chair. I removed the damaged leaves and cut out the core throwing it into a bucket. Then I set the cabbage shredder with a bucket under the knives and ran the cabbage across it to slice the cabbage for mom to put in a crock for the fermenting process.

Since making sauerkraut is ancient skill, it needs only the basics: cabbage, salt, cabbage shredder, sharp knife, big bowl, and storage containers. It’s as simple as that!

1. Cabbage. Various types contain different amounts of sugar, but generally best fermentation results are achieved with large solid heads of white cabbage. You can use all kinds of cabbage-heads and still get great sauerkraut, but the larger the head (especially if it’s been picked in late autumn) – the higher percentage of sugar it contains and faster the fermentation.
2. Salt. Choose natural non iodized salt. Non-iodized salt will not slow down bacterial fermentation plus it’s full of minerals. Since you will later drink and use fermented kraut’s juice (which is very healthy source of vitamins and healthy gut bacteria) – it’s best to use a good quality salt. On average, you will need 2-2.5% of salt by weight.
3. Cabbage shredder. It’s important that shredder’s blades are sharp and adjusted for fine shredding. Having high quality cabbage shredder will make the experience of making homemade sauerkraut fast, easy and enjoyable since process of shredding is basically the only “work” you will have to do to make this delicious, beneficial and healthy food.
4. Large bowl. You will need it to slice cabbage into it without making a mess you must clean up later.
5. Storage containers. You can use earthenware crocks, food-grade plastic containers or glass containers. Mom used a 25-gallon crock to start with before packing quart jars with the sauerkraut and sealing the jars.

After having spent several days slicing cabbage I moved onto to the process of making relishes by slicing and mincing pickles for the relish so mom could do her thing. Mom put all the ingredients into another smaller crock before scooping the relish into jar and blanching them to seal the lids.

My tasks and elevated foot were now able to resume some light duties. My mom cut out the toes of my tennis shoes so that my toes could breathe while my foot healed. I then wore shorts, t shirt and my tennis shoe the rest of that summer until school started.

My mom then showed me my new shoes, pants, and shirts for the start of school that she had purchased at store sales earlier in the spring. She had thought ahead, and she planned for me start as a freshman in high school. But she had not noticed my growth spurt that summer as I had grown to 6”- 1” from 5’ - 7”.

However, my high school gym coach noticed the change of height and weight and had me step on a scale. Then he measured me for a varsity jacket as they now wanted me in football as well as track.  I was already in wrestling, wrestling in the 127-weight category. My new weight category was now 164, if I could get down there, as I weighed now 180.