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Mission Accomplished: Sauerkraut!
I did it! I overcame my inability to grow cabbage AND ended up with a successful, delicious batch of sauerkraut! And it only took me eight months! Maybe I just needed to be patient, because my cabbage actually headed up this year. I started the seeds indoors in March and transplanted them out in May. I’m estimating that the biggest heads were about 4 inches in diameter by late October. I guess I just didn’t realize cabbage took that long to grow! I’m thinking one of my mistakes one year, was that the cabbage didn’t head up and I tried to use the hard outer leaves anyway. I’m thinking now…
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Transplanting Tips: The quest for homemade sauerkraut continues!
Remember the cabbage seeds that I started indoors back in March? Well, here they are now and they are ready to be transplanted in the ground! I hardened them off by bringing them outside during the day and bringing them back in a night for a couple of days. On the third day I left them out all night. I’m no expert at hardening off plants, as I haven’t done a lot of it. I would imagine some other plants, like warmer season crops, may need a longer and more gradual hardening off, but a few days seemed fine for the cabbage. This time of year, I try to do…
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Starting Seeds Indoors and the Quest for Homemade Sauerkraut
I used to hate sauerkraut when I was a kid. I thought it smelled like boiling, smelly socks. Now I love it! When I started growing vegetables, I was so excited to plant cabbage, and tons of it, so I could make and can sauerkraut. The first year I planted cabbage, it grew really well and I successfully made and canned sauerkraut. It was a little salty, but still pretty good! It must have been beginner’s luck though, because the next year, I planted more cabbage, in a different spot (a completely different bed) and it got mowed down by cutworms. The year after that, I rotated it again and…
