SAUERKRAUT.

I guess you can tell we're Czech by the simple fact that we make our own sauerkraut. Well, technically, I'm not Czech, but being married to one naturally grandfathers me in, right? Anyhow, yep, we make our own sauerkraut. It's fun. And it's yummy. And we jar it up and share it.

What a clever one, he is.

Last year we put an order in for our cabbage with a local farmer, and for what ever reason it never came through. So at the very end of the summer we were left high and dry with no sauerkraut. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so my man bought what he could from the grocery store and we gave it a go. Bad idea. Store bought cabbage does not make for good kraut. It never fermented, and we were just left with a stinky, mushy mess.

This year we were on the ball and put our order in extra early, with a different local farmer. And he delivered. Amen. We were so excited that we got to work that very same night of picking up our cabbage. The recipe is quite simple.

You need lots of cabbage. We ordered 15 heads.

Shred your cabbage using one of these contraptions. I don't even know what it's called (a kraut cutter, perhaps?), but Nick found it at an estate sale a few years ago.

For every 5 pounds of cabbage (roughly 2 heads), add 3 tablespoons of pickling salt. Because it makes such a large amount, we shredded two heads of cabbage, added our salt, then mixed it up. Then repeated the process until we were done.

Once we were finished with the labor stage, Nick transferred it to a large Red Wing crock and sealed the top. It will ferment for a few weeks, then should be ready to share!

And what fun would making sauerkraut be without some adorable little helpers?

 Look Mom, the cabbage is bigger than Brother's head!

Let us know if you'd like a jar, there's plenty to go around!