brassicas – Page 2 – Cross Road Gardens

Sauerkraut day

August 29, 2020September 14, 2020 CatherineLeave a comment

I harvested this massive Farao cabbage. Six pounds! A bit overdone as it was splitting and had some rotten leaves at the base.

Chopped up into chunks more or less the size of the food processor’s feed

An extremely dangerous food processor hack that allows the blade to keep spinning while leaving food hopper open to accept more cabbage

Half a cabbage fills the processor with shreds

Capturing weight of shredded cabbage in grams in order to calculate two percent of added salt

Massaging in 42 grams of salt reduces volume. Just harvested cabbage is very moist. Let sit to produce more brine.

We then place the kraut in a well-cleaned and sanitized crock. A little sauerkraut juice from the previous batch is added as a starter. A few cabbage leaves and weights hold the shreds under the brine for anaerobic fermentation. Lastly the lid is put on and a little water is poured in to the moat.

Bubbles started coming up though the moat within a few hours. It’s a very companionable sound.

Updated to show results after about a week of fermentation:

From garden to crock

July 20, 2020July 26, 2020 CatherineLeave a comment

I harvested a cabbage on July 20. Pretty early! This is from a seedling bought from Chuck, variety “Farao.”

We shred cabbage in the food processor using the 2mm blade. Then weigh in grams, calculating salt as 2 percent of that weight.

Massage in salt, let sit, then load into crock for fermenting. This cabbage will make one quart jar of kraut.

Mulching

May 20, 2020May 20, 2020 CatherineLeave a comment

I’ve been mulching new plants. Tucking them into their beds of hay or straw for the season. Garlic first, then today onions and then broccoli. It is satisfying and makes the row look great. Strenuous, but just think of the weeding and watering it will save and the nice healthy plants that will grow.

I took some photos of the broccoli. There are a few struggling red cabbage or maybe cauliflower mixed in there, but mostly broccoli mix. The plants are under cover to prevent flea beetle attacks, and later cabbage butterfly. I left the covers off for the afternoon to admire the row and allow it to soak up this sunshine.

Before hay mulch. They’ve had some chopped leaf mulch on them from the beginning. There’s a rogue spinach in there from last fall, bolting now.

After hay mulch. To the right, potatoes. To the left , barely visible, fava beans.

Corner trellis

April 14, 2020April 15, 2020 CatherineLeave a comment

A nice warm day, perfect for working in the garden. I planted seeds under the corner trellis, where we grow the next succession of greens after the hoophouse gets too hot. Arugula, spinach, escarole, Salanova lettuce, spring raab and Russian red kale.

I also adjusted the row cover so it would be more secure over the row of broccoli. The seedlings look ok, maybe a little worse for wear after being buried in snow and attacked by strong winds.

Sam refreshed two paths with wood chips, readying the root crops row for planting. And we managed to replace the zippers on the front wall of the hoophouse. The zipper tapes, presumably cotton, had deteriorated and were ripped apart by wind and our zipping. This was a monumental chore, and not finished yet. The wall is laying in a bundle on the living room floor waiting to be reinstalled.