Making Do

One of the unfortunate effects of the Great July Drought has been to make the many, many cabbages I planted this spring both somewhat small and prone to bolting. Cabbages will usually keep for several months after being harvested in the fall, but this year I've had two bolt already.

They're unusable when they bolt, since they basically become one big, tough core. So in order to save the rest, I had to harvest them right away. And then I had six cabbages and definitely not enough refrigerator space for all that cabbage. Plus, we love coleslaw, but there's only so much of it we can eat.

Time for sauerkraut!

I actually canned the first batch of sauerkraut last night, which was about a gallon when it went into the jar to, uh, sauer, and then ended up being about three quarts when it was canned (it wilts quite a bit as it ferments). The first step in making sauerkraut is actually just slicing the cabbage up and then salting it to start releasing its liquid. Only after that step is it put in its sauering receptacle.

I usually use the crock from my Crock-Pot and my biggest bowl to do the salting step. That will hold about the amount of sauerkraut I made in the last batch. It will not, however, hold the amount of sliced cabbage I ended up with after sending six cabbages through the food processor's slicing blade. But what to use? I don't really have anything much bigger than that crock that would be easy to mix the cabbage and salt in.

Okay, so I do have the twenty-gallon crock, but that's a little too big and unwieldy for this.

What I did have, however, is a slightly cracked refrigerator crisper drawer that I fortuitously just washed after replacing it with a new one yesterday. It's big, it has a wide top, I can mix cabbage and salt in it. So what if that is not a use for which it was intended? I use my car as a food dehydrator, for God's sake. I use what I have.

Probably not a use Frigidaire ever envisioned.

I suspect that's not actually food-safe plastic, but since the cabbage is only in there for a couple of hours, I'm not too worried about it.

And on a last, totally inconsequential and random note, shredding up cabbage makes one hell of a mess in every area of the kitchen.

Happy Friday, poppets! Have a fantastic long weekend. I know I will. Know why? There will be salsa canned. Oh yes. Fun and excitement indeed.