This morning was bright and sunny so I went out for awhile to rake beds, pull Nasturtium, sweep the garden shed etc. Even if it isn't an outside kind of day I can usually find something to work at. I still have some dahlias in the ground. In the end it began to plop snow and rain interchangeably. I came back inside but couldn't sit still. I had checked on my Violaceo di Verona cabbages and was suddenly, and inexplicably in the mood to make sauerkraut.
I made a batch this summer from the Golden Acre cabbage. It was a fun project and turned out well but I gave all of it away to the neighbors. I seasoned it with caraway seeds and they loved it, even the wife who is also not a huge fan of sauerkraut. She said mine was very mild and she really liked it. What she probably like about it is that it was fresh not canned from the store. I will be interested to find if the different variety makes a noticeably different taste.
I picked the two nicest heads and ended up with a little over two pounds shredded. I still have a good sized head out there and two small ones. One plant is not making a head at all. I will probably use one of the small heads for fresh cole slaw when I pull the last of the carrots.
Again, I sliced by hand. One noticeable thing is that these heads made a lot of brine right away. That is probably the difference between summer cabbage and fall cabbage with plenty of rain. These plants would naturally have a high moisture content. As I worked the salt in I pulled out the coarse stems you can see in that cross section. The VdV cabbage is very crinkly and made an interesting texture.
It looks good already!
I'm looking forward to tasting it.
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