Congrats on your completed project. Our family just shredded 120 lbs of cabbage. We did not make kraut last year so we are really in the mood for some good n tasty kraut. We ended up with 13 gallons.

Haven't made kraut in years and you guys are making me hungry. My cabbage crop was a bust this year thanks to bunnies and loopers, but a new crop is coming on now, but just enough for winter use. Maybe next year.

Wow Canfan! That is a LOT of cabbage! Calliope, what is a looper? lol!

Calliope, we bought our cabbage @ 29 cents/lb this year because the cows found all of our 12 plants earlier this summer. They also ate the corn, too.

PaulaB.. yep that is a lot of cabbage. We will share with the friends who came and help shred yesterday. Tried to get them to take some home but they said they would "wait" for the finished product. Also will give some away @ Christmas. Which will still leave a lot left over. We will end up canning and/or freezing the rest.

I'm not Calliope, but a looper is the green caterpiller from eggs laid by the white butterfly that make a mess of cole crops.

Slightly OT, but it WAS a 'project from seed'; probably 25 yrs ago I direct seeded Burpee 'Surehead' cabbage into the garden mid July, and had several large heads by November. Made some kraut, but mostly pulled the heads up by the roots, flipped them upside down, and basically buried them right back in the same spot they had grown in. Left the root sticking up above ground so we could find them later and covered with thick mulch.

It actually worked very well, outside leaves on the heads had to be removed but we had fresh cabbage from the garden all winter; had three heads left come spring, which on a whim I replanted, which sent up stalks, bloomed, and made seed .

[correction]

.....1978-79 when I did this, so it's closer to 35 years ago....sigh

This post was edited by sidhartha0209 on Tue, Oct 8, 13 at 8:34

For the firsts time, this year I grew few cabbages from seedling. They were doing pretty good and the white butterflies were hanging around. I should've sprayed BT but did not. So the loopers did it and I got some, from which made a little saurkraut. It turned out pretty good. After fermentation I added about on TB spoon of vinegar per qrt. To make it nicely sour.

Anyway, I learned my lesson well. NO MORE cabbage growing, when you can buy them @ 50 cent per pound or less. Same lesson that I learned years ago about growing corn. When mine were ready, the stores were selling theirs @ 25 cents an ear. AND theirs were much better than mine. Ane not to mention the squirrels hunting the seeds.

This post was edited by seysonn on Wed, Oct 9, 13 at 6:31

Congratulations. I didn't get any cabbages harvested last year, so this year we did quite a bit, too. I ended up canning 27 pints and 5 quarts. Since there's just the 2 of us anymore, pints suit us better. My daughter and her husband are visiting this weekend - we're having a kielbasa and Italian sausage making session (100 lbs). Lots of kielbasa and sauerkraut over mashed potatoes for quick winter dinners.

Back when I was working, I traveled a lot with my job. My husband isn't much of a cook, so he and the kids survived on a lot of sausage and sauerkraut dinners. Luckily the kids still like this meal and take alot of the kraut with them when they come to visit.