Canning Sour Kraut

*Note: Never can kraut when the signs are in the feet or the bowels. If you do it will smell & taste very bad.

What you'll need:
sweet, white cabbage (how much is up to you; small heads of cabbage generally make about 2 qts of kraut each)
a clean sink
a coffee/tea cup, or something similar sized to scoop the cabbage out of the bowl with
a jar funnel helps to keep the mess down
a large bowl to put finely chopped cabbage into
a large bowl or trash can for discarding unwanted cabbage parts
a cutting board, or a clean flat surface to cut the cabbage on
a butter knife
a medium sized sharp knife to de-leaf & de-core the cabbage and to cut the cabbage up with
if you have an electric food chopper it makes the job alot easier, otherwise you'll also need a large, sharp knife to chop the cabbage finely after youve cut it up
2-4 clean quart jars per head of cabbage, depending on the size of the cabbage.
a rubber ring for each jar
a zinc lid for each jar
pickling salt (you will need 2 tsp per qt)
a large pot for boiling water
a warm, dark place to sit your kraut for the next 2-4 (possibly up to 6) weeks while it 'works', and some towels to set your jars on because they will very likely leak out some.
WARNING* It will NOT smell good when the fermentation process begins. If you have a delicate nose, or just a nose period ;) you may not want to sit it in your living area.

Directions:
Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage & discard
Sit cabbages in a sink full of cool water, this helps crisp the cabbage (you dont HAVE to do this*)
Cut cabbage into big chunks and remove the core
Put a large pot of water on the stove to boil
Cut off & discard any excess left on the core and set the core aside to add to your kraut (the core is my favorite!)
If you have an electric chopper, put your cabbage chunks in on 'shred', if you dont have an electric chopper, use a large, sharp knife and a cutting board or clean counter to chop your cabbage up finely
Place finely chopped cabbage into a big bowl
Put the rubber ring on your jar
Place the funnel in the jar
Use a coffee/tea cup to scoop the chopped cabbage out of the bowl, and pour into the jar.
*Use a spoon to press the cabbage firmly into the jar, fill it up just to the neck of the jar, set aside
repeat until you have all of jars full
add 2 level tsp of pickling salt to each jar
After water has boiled turn heat off but dont allow the water to cool down.
Scoop water out of pot with cup, preferably one with a pour spout, and pour into jars over cabbage
Use a butter knife to press along the sides of the jar and in the center to release all the air bubbles from the jar
water will go down, add more water and repeat with knife until water comes to the neck of the jar & bubbles stop rising
put zinc lid on jar, close all the way down, then loosen back 1/2 turn
set aside on towels in warm (but not hot) dark place to 'work' for at least 2 weeks, you can check it then to see if its ready. It can take up to 6 weeks if you have been keeping it in a slightly cooler area. When its sour enough for your liking, tighten down all the lids, and store in a cool dark place.

Churning Homemade Butter/ Making Buttermilk; step-by-step instructions.

◦Start out by pouring unpasteurized, whole milk into your clean churn jar. Jersey cows usually make the most cream (which means more butter yield), and in my opinion have the best flavored milk, but for our butter yesterday we used Holstein milk. You dont want to overfill your churn jar, or the milk will splash out when you churn and make a big mess. I fill mine a little more than half way full. Wash your milk jugs and save them for buttermilk later.

◦Cover your milk with a clean cloth before replacing the lid to keep dirt from getting in your milk through the hole in the lid. Then set your milk aside in a warm place until it clabbers. It may clabber within a day in the summer, but if the weather is chilly you will have to sit it beside a fireplace or stove, and it could take 3 days, even then. The way to check and see if the milk has clabbered is to gently roll the churn slighty to the side and see if the milk comes away cleanly from the side of the churn. Basically, it has the consistency of yogurt. You may notice that there are 2 layers, and sometime the top layer doesnt ‘set up’. Thats because its part of the cream that has risen to the top.

◦Once you determine that your milk has clabbered, grab your dash and sit it gently down into the milk, then replace your churn lid.

◦Begin churning the milk. You want to get in a good rhythm. The faster you go, the quicker you make butter, but you also make a bigger mess. My speed is an up-down per second, which isnt that fast, and still makes butter in no time. Make sure you’re going all the way down and coming all the way back up through the milk with your dash or it will take a long time to make butter. Just like exercise, its not about the speed, so much as the form. If you are having alot of splashback, you can use a clean cloth to cover the hole around the dash, just dont wrap it so tightly around the dash that it gets caught and goes into the milk.

◦When you start noticing little specks of butter forming on your dash its time to check and see if the butter is ready to gather. If you have lots of little butter clumps floating in the top, youre ready.

◦Remove your lid, and pull the dash up so that the head of the dash is just beneath the flecks of butter, and stir slowly in a circular motion to gather your butter together.

◦After youve gathered your butter, scoop it out into a clean bowl, then replace the lid on your churn to keep the buttermilk that has been left behind, clean.

◦Take your bowl of butter to the sink, and pat it together, like youre trying to form a ball. The butter will be very soft. What you are doing is releasing the rest of the excess liquid from the butter. Drain it each time you have a small amount of liquid, and keep working it until there is barely any liquid coming out. (You can add ice to begin stiffening up the butter, just pick whatever doesnt melt out when youre done.)

◦After removing most of the liquid from the butter (and removing any ice that youve added), add salt to your taste. Start with a little, add more if needed. Mix well.

◦After you’ve mixed in your salt, put your butter in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes to let it harden a little more.

◦While you are waiting, place your butter mold into a bowl of ice water. This helps the butter to keep its form.

◦When you remove the butter from the fridge, it should feel firm, but you’ll find that if you squeeze it (which you will!) it is still easily workable.

◦Remove the butter mold from the ice water, reassemble it (leaving it wet), and begin working small handfuls of butter into it. Make sure you press the butter as firmly as possible into the mold, this will help reduce bubbles and imperfections in your final product.

◦After filling the mold with butter, and smoothing off the bottom, place the mold upside down onto whatever container you will be storing the butter in/on, and place back in the refrigerator for about 10 more minutes while in the mold to firm.

◦Gently remove the outer, cuplike part of the mold. DO NOT press down on the stamp handle unless you have to, and then only press it very gently, just long enough to get the butter to begin releasing from the mold, or you will mess up your stamp print.

◦Viola! You have beautiful, and tasty butter!

◦After youre finished making butter, use either a funnel, or a dipper that will fit down into your churn, and pour what is left in the churn (buttermilk) into clean jugs (I used the ones the milk came in), and refrigerate.

(photo 1: pouring the milk, photo 2: (left) butter mold (right) churn dash, photo 3: milk with clean cloths under the lid, photo 4: milk sitting by the stove to clabber, photo 5: checking the milk to see that its clabbered, photo 6: churn with dash, photo 7: churn with dash in the milk, photo 8: churn with dash and lid replaced, photo 9: starting to see butter flecks on the dash, photo 10: checking the butter to see if its ready for gathering, photo 11: gathering the butter together, photo 12: the gathered butter, photo 13: putting the butter into a bowl, photo 14: working the liquid out of the butter, photo 15: draining the liquid from the butter, photo 16: ice in the butter to help it begin hardening, photo 17: chilled butter, photo 18: chilling the butter mold, photo 19: pressing the butter into the mold, photo 20: removing the mold after chilling, photo 21: butter: the finished product, photo 22: getting ready to pour the buttermilk into jugs.)

Seeing the De'il

Late one night just before going to bed, I walked outside for some air, and on my way back in, someting sinister caught my eye. There was a bat flying back and forth from our kitchen to our living room. Time. Stood. Still. Until that moment I would have told you that I wasnt afraid of bats, oh no, I just love to see them flying around at night when we're camping. Outside. At a safe distance. Inside, is, I find, another matter. I discovered that I am actually quite terrified of bats when they share the same enclosure with me, and are in close proximity to my hair. I have alot of hair. Upon sight of the bat in my house, I immediately imagined the bat (the HUGE bat) tangled up in my tresses, fighting to escape, and biting me repeatedly in the process (thus giving me rabies, and the plague, and every other disease known to man) so instead of entering and bringing this idea to reality, I began shouting for my husband, who had already gone to bed. During the time I was waiting for him to come save me I propped the door open in hopes that the bat would rather be outside than in, thus flying out by his own accord. In the time it took my husband to get up, wondering groggily what was going on, the bat was nowhere to be found. He assumed that the bat had flown out while I wasnt looking. I assumed the evil vermin was hiding in the curtains, so we made a thorough check of the house, shaking out curtains and rattling couches, looking in closets, and in every dark corner. No bat. And though he denies it, I think my husband thought Id finally lost it. Too excited to go to sleep, I laid down to read. Just as I started getting sleepy I heard our ceiling fan making a strange whooshing sound and looked up. The black devil! He wasnt just in my house, now he was in my inner sanctum! I did the only smart thing there was to do; I covered my head and screamed to the top of my lungs that he was back. My husband jumped out of bed (no choice but to believe me this time!) and chased the bat from our room. From across the house I could hear my daughter worriedly asking, "Mom? Whats wrong?" but before I could tell her to flee from the house and save herself, she began screaming to the top of her lungs. The bat had made its journey from our bedroom, through our boys' bedroom, and into hers. It travelled this path for about an hour. Or, ok, more like a minute (lets face it, in 'bat in the house' time, this does indeed equal an hour. At least.) Finally, my husband was able to get it closed out of the bedrooms. I layed there in the darkness, head still covered, and completely petrified as he worked on shooing it the rest of the way out of the house. He returned a few minutes later and assured me that the problem had been taken care of as he'd 'heard it whoosh by his head after opening the door, and then saw it fly by as he stood outside'. Good. No sleep in sight, I pulled my book back out and began to read again. Oh, the evil wing'ed deceptor. Just as I was dozing off I heard the 'fan' noise again, and turned to see that Draculla had indeed returned for blood. This time my husband jumped to action just in time to see him fly into the boys' bedroom and hit my oldest son squarely in the forehead as he sat up in his top bunk. My son's reaction to this incident? A sleepy mumbling of the words, "He hit me." after which was proceeded promptly by his laying back down and going directly back to sleep. (Teenage boys. 'Nuff said.) Once again my husband returned to the bedroom uttering the uber reassuring words, "Im almost sure this time!" Great. I read for another hour. Nothing. Another 30 minutes. Still nothing. So I finally went begrudgingly to sleep, and managed to stay so for what was left of the night. And this, is how the story ends: Recently, with the weather cooling we've been having critter problems; spiders that want to snuggle up with us in the bed, mice unwelcomely making themselves at home in our home, etc. so we have mouse traps set for the larger of the afore said beasties, and the next morning when my husband awoke, he came to me saying, "Well, guess what was in the mouse trap?" It wasnt a mouse.