Making Sauerkraut

One of our vegetables at the CSA this week was Tokyo Bekana. This is one of several Asian greens my CSA farmer grows. It is related to bok choy and can be used in much the same way. December marked the beginning of a new session with the CSA and the new members are learning that winter means greens. In fact, the very first pick-up was all greens due to weather issues requiring their immediate harvest at the farm. Most members managed to deal with the plethora of greens but appreciate that this doesn't happen every week.

In an effort to avoid intimidating anyone with an excess of greens this week, we pulled out and set aside a humongous bunch of Tokyo Bekana. We pondered what to do with it. When one of the other folks working at the CSA mentioned making sauerkraut, I piped up that I would take this monster home. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of it before starting to wash and prep it for sauerkraut.

To give you an idea of the size, however, let me point out that it took me half an hour just to clean it. One difference between farm fresh produce and that from the store is dirt. The vegetables in the store have been washed; not so with that fresh from a local farm. There was dirt on all the leaves that had to be washed off. This bunch was so large, though, that I actually had to cut it in thirds to fit in my bowl to wash it. Really. It was about 20" tall!

Okay, I can see you don't believe me. Here is some photograph proof.

Once cleaned, the bunch (with leaves separated) filled a 3 1/2 gallon bucket.


This is how big the top of the leaves were. Remember, this is only the top third ... and this is my big knife.


In fact, the leaves were so big, the easiest way to shred the tops was to roll them up and do it chiffonade style.


But, back to making sauerkraut. I used the recipe from Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz. As I was shredding the Tokyo Bekana, I sprinkled salt over each layer in the bowl.


By the time I finished, I had two large bowls and had used 1/4 cup of salt. The next step was to stuff all of this into my glass sun tea jar. (A ceramic crock would be a better choice but I don't have one large enough!)


After each handful of leaves put in the jar, I used my fist to press them down tightly. This helps express water from the leaves. Can you believe I got it all to fit? There was even room to spare (as you'll see shortly)!

Now here's where not having a crock creates a problem. You are supposed to put a small plate over the vegetables and then weight it down with a jar full of water. The reason is that you want the sauerkraut submerged in the brine that develops from water expressed from the vegetables. The brine is what preserves the cabbage.


A little creativity solves the problem. I filled the Ziploc bag with a brine solution and fitted it over the vegetables. Throughout the first day, I was supposed to push down on the weight every now and then to push the vegetables down into their brine. (In my set-up, I'd have to remove the bag and push on the vegetables.) I totally forgot to do this yesterday.


Luckily, this morning, the jar had plenty of brine and veggies were completely covered.


I set the jar aside in an out of the way place. I'll check on it every day or so until it's as sour as I'd like. I think I let it go about 5 days the last time I made it, but it may take longer with the cooler temperatures.

Sauerkraut, like kimchi, uses one of the lowest energy methods of food preservation: lactofermentation. (Note to vegans: this is not related to dairy despite the "lacto".) I have only learned to make these things in the past year. Unfortunately, my sweetie does not care for these foods. Fortunately, I do and am more than happy to eat them with a bowl of plain rice.