All must bow down before Master Cabbagehead! Actually, he looks like something they'd use as a Bad Guy on an original 'Star Trek' episode, LOL!
Posted on 09/15/2009 9:17:23 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Talk to local gardeners, and they’re going to talk about the late spring and the unusually cool summer growing season. In that monologue, you’re going to hear about the so-so onions and slow tomatoes, but also about the stupendous production of cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower.
Charles Szakacs reaped the benefits of a cool growing season when his Copenhagen cabbages more than doubled their weight and size. These select giant cabbages weighed around 19 pounds, but more came in at 15 and 16 pounds a head.
“I picked one batch of 14 cabbages that weighed 183 pounds,” he said.
On the family homestead between Caputa and Farmingdale, Szakacs plants a quarter-acre garden. Only 120 feet from Rapid Creek, he is able to irrigate the entire garden daily over several hours. He adds compost to the soil to keep the weeds down. It’s surrounded by a 6-foot chain-link fence to keep the deer out. An electrified wire on top of the fence keeps the raccoons out of the corn.
Inside of this fenced plot is a cornucopia of vegetables. “My father liked to garden,” Szakacs said.
His garden includes 180 tomato plants, 1,200 onions, beets, cucumbers, asparagus and potatoes.
“She (wife Marion Grant) got me started gardening nine years ago and I got carried away,” Szakacs said.
This year, his 100 Copenhagen and 225 cabbages produced a bumper crop for his favorite condiment — sauerkraut.
“The only reason why they got this big was because of the cool weather,” he said.
Using a giant-sized mandolin slicer, he runs his cabbages through in a matter of minutes, creating a raw cabbage slaw that is crisp and pungent. He will grate about four of his large cabbages — 75 pounds of slaw — for his 10-gallon crock that will eventually be packed and salted. Then it will be left to ferment for three weeks.
“Out of that, I’ll get roughly 60 quarts of sauerkraut,” he said.
Each quart jar weighs about two pounds, including the jar. Dozens of jars of golden sauerkraut gleam in their glass containers, ready to add biting flavor to sausages, kielbasa and hot dogs.
“Yeah, I got a lot of friends who like it,” Szakacs said. “Howard Nold started me three years ago making the stuff. He was so busy he couldn’t make it, so he started me.”
Luckily, Szakacs loves to cook.
His mother was an organizer of the local 4-H clubs and a member of the South Dakota Cowbelles, where she served as a state officer. Gardening and cooking were introduced into Szakacs’ life at an early age. He generally does his picking on the weekends, prepping the produce for drying, freezing or canning, then begins the canning process. His jars not only fill the pantry shelves, but offer other healthful benefits.
“I work in construction and I do this for a hobby to relieve stress,” he said.
Making sauerkraut
You don’t need gigantic cabbages to make sauerkraut, but it helps. Charles Szakacs reaped the benefits of a cool spring and summer with cabbages that were more than twice the size expected. He offers his simple recipe for sauerkraut.
Sauerkraut
75 pounds cabbage, cored and grated
2-1/4 cups pickling salt
Caraway seeds, optional
1 10-gallon crock
1 cheesecloth
A fitted lid for the crock
8-pound weights
Wash, core and cut out blemishes of 75 pounds of cabbage. Grate into a rough slaw and set aside. Layer the slaw cabbage into the bottom of the 10-gallon crock, salting the layer with about 2 tablespoons of pickling salt. Sprinkle lightly with caraway seeds. Pack down tightly and go to next layer. Continue in the manner for the first 50 pounds of cabbage. Szakacs said he has used about 1-1/2 cups pickling salt at this point.
For the next 25 pounds, use 3/4 cup salt to sprinkle each layer lightly, using only several teaspoons on each layer. Pack the cabbage slaw tightly. When finished, cover with cheesecloth, cover cheesecloth with lid and keep lid weighted with an 8-pound weight.
During the three weeks of fermenting, take the cheesecloth out each day to wash, wring out and replace. Pack the cabbage and replace cheesecloth on top of cabbage, replace lid and add weights. Change cheesecloth and pack cabbage daily.
At the end of three weeks, it’s ready for canning.
“It will take about 7-1/2 hours to can that entire crock,” Szakacs said.
Hot-Pack Method from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Prepare canner, jars and lids.
In a large stainless steel saucepan, bring sauerkraut, with brine, to a simmer over medium-high heat. Do not boil. Pack hot sauerkraut and brine into hot jars, leaving 1/2-inch or 1 cm headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding more brine. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.
Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process pint jars for 10 minutes and quart jars for 15 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.
Tips
Fermentation may take up to six weeks, depending on atmospheric conditions and variations in the cabbage itself.
A jar lifter is very helpful for handling hot, wet jars. Because they are bulky and fit loosely, oven mitts — even water-resistant types — are not a wise choice. When filling jars, an all-purpose rubber glove, worn on your helper hand, will allow you to steady the jar.
A clear plastic ruler, kept solely for kitchen use, will help you determine the correct headspace. Each filled jar should be measured accurately, as the headspace can affect sealing and the preservation of the contents.
Ok, after going through this thread, cabbage is on the list for next years garden! That Reuben looked SO GOOD! And the saurkraut/keilbasa stuff. YUM!
Thanks for the ping! I grew the most BEAUTIFUL red cabbage this season in my flower bed. The cooler summer was just perfect for cabbage and this one was done by late June.
I’m going to braise it in butter...and eat the whole thing myself. :)
All must bow down before Master Cabbagehead! Actually, he looks like something they'd use as a Bad Guy on an original 'Star Trek' episode, LOL!
Do you have a recipe that you will share? Sounds delicious!
Very nice garden on your home page, Mama. RD — check it out if you haven’t already. Gnat’s Ass Construction did a really good job. ;-)
Why thank you! I was just out there, picking more tomatoes (finally ripening up...thankful for the great weather we’re having) and more zukes. For my very first garden, I think things have gone really well. Gonna be a lot of changes next year! Not so much squash, lots more green beens, and I’m only planting a few radishes and letting them grow into the big bushes that produce the seed pods. They are better than the radish itself, go great in salads, and you can even pickle them! Ever had a radish pod? Do a google search for radish seeds, and you should get a picture of the pod. We let one keep growing, just to see what would happen, and found a great new taste sensation! I haven’t found one person yet who’s even heard of them, let alone TASTED them. Most definitely doing cabbage next year, and maybe only a bit of lettuce. Planted WAY TOO much lettuce and can’t keep up with it!
This guy looks great by comparison, but the same hat.
BUT! Despite the wretchedly poor brats—the only German food being sold, other than kuchens & “hot potato salad”— they had a fantastic home made kraut to go with them that was to die for.
I say “hot potato salad” in quotes because it was really just hot chunks of boiled potatoes with the plainest of plain German potato salad dressings over them; no other ingredients: no bacon; no onion!
Definitely wasn't worth driving the 50 miles to get to it.
Oh, and the kraut was only available as a side dish; none to bring home. :-(
Halushki! Mom shreads the cabbage and fries it in a huge pan, boils the potatoes seperately, sautee’s onions. Then cubes the boiled potatoes, and mixes them with the cooked cabbage and onions and adds lots of butter and some onion powder. It disappears very quickly.
Yes ma’am I have seen her home page and garden! It is just wonderful what she and her husband did!
Decades ago, they wanted to build a paper mill in Antioch, Californiap>
People were terribly skeptical about the whole deal because of the stench paper mills were famous for.
The mayor went to visit a town with a similar mill, then reported back, “the odor is rather pleasant, reminiscent of cooking corned beef & cabbage!”
After the mill was built, people got to find out what several tons of “cabbage cooking” 24/7 really smelled like.
Uh, oh! There goes all the heart failure patients and the ones on Coumadin!
(Although the worst part of fall is that last pear on the tree, that invariably ends up in at least one broken bone. Every year.
I suppose is some areas, it’s that last apple. Next, will come all the dizzy spells from picking up pecans.)
I guess that is why Antioch ended up with people like Phillip Garrido living there.
mmmmm bacon.
I swag it but it comes down to,
Fry 3-4 slices of bacon, remove but save the grease.
Add shredded red cabbage and fry ‘til well wilted. Stir often. Cabbage will cook way down.
Add 1/4 C apple cider vinegar, 1/4-1/3 C brown sugar.
Add 1 sliced apple, 1 lb kielbasa cut into about 4 pieces.
Add about 1 Tbsp. caraway seeds. Or not.
Continue cooking covered until cabbage is tender. About 15 min.
Crumble bacon into the cabbage.
I don’t use the thick white veins near the core of the cabbage.
Hey, don’t knock sauerkraut!
It is very good for many things.
For example:
If you have a bad cough drink one quart of sauerkraut juice. Within one or two hours you won’t DARE cough!
Another proof that you mind is always seeing the evil in everything.
If that’s what you think about when you see pictures of sandwiches, that says a lot more about where your mind is than the photographers.
Need to hire a few more produce boys.
What do I think of? Enlighten me.
A Reuben sandwich is evil? Who knew?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.