I hope its true that hard work never hurt anyone, because canning is hard work. That is unless you have free help. I got all the cabbage harvested today and cleaned and ready to shred for kraut and the red ones were shredded to make spiced red cabbage. I have a new mandolin for slicing and shredding veggies but there is just something sentimental about doing it the old way. This particular "cabbage cutter" as we call it has been in my family for 3 generations now and today the 4th generation got to try his hand at shredding cabbage. After Jason took the blades off the shredder and sharpened them, this thing cut like brand new. It makes perfect shreds and we both still have all our fingers, skin included. The recipe for kraut is 1 lb of canning salt per 50 lb of shredded cabbage. I had about 25 lb which is not much but it filled 3 of the 12 qt dishpans and then we managed to fit it all in 1 fermenting crock. It must be packed till the juices flow and covers the top of the cabbage by a few inches. These crocks are quite expensive but worth the money if you ferment veggies. The crock is packed tight and full of salted cabbage and we wait for the fermentation process to finish which may take a few weeks. All the cleanup is done now so its on to the next project.
I also got more tomato juice made today and it has been canned. I only made 6 qts and 1 pt today. But little by little I will replenish what was used last year.
We went back to the garden after supper and picked the ripe tomatoes and a few more zucchini. The cukes are done for the most part. We do have some bell peppers that are starting to get red and I hope to experiment and maybe can some roasted red peppers. Think those will be good when there is a snow on the ground this winter. Just a little taste of summer in the cold. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
stella
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