Dear CSA members:
Greetings from Seth in the world of cabbage and barrels!
As the autumn makes its entrance, the cabbages in our garden are starting to gesture inward forming heads. Warm days with chilly nights will help the cabbage fill out. Cabbage harvested after a couple of hard frosts is the best for making sauerkraut, as during this change of temperature the cabbage gets sweeter. The sweeter the cabbage, the better the sauerkraut.
By the end of the month we should have our first hard frost, and by late October I will start shredding the cabbage, salting and spicing it and putting it into barrels made of oak. Most of the barrels were previously used to age wine. Oak is a nice vessel to use, because the tannins in the wood help preserve the kraut, as well as give it a nice hint of oak flavor.
I will make three different varieties of sauerkraut this fall; plain, caraway, and rubykraut. Plain sauerkraut is simply cabbage and unrefined sea salt. The sea salt, which is from Brittany, is not bleached, heated or chemically treated like most sea salt is. It is sun-dried and has many trace minerals present. The caraway sauerkraut also has juniper berries. The juniper berries act as a preservative and the caraway seeds are a digestive aid. Together in the kraut these spices add a great flavor. The rubykraut, which sold out very quickly last winter, is made from red cabbage, onions, unrefined sea salt, garlic and bay leaves. Rubykraut is often mistaken for beets, because although red cabbage starts out purple, it turns beet red during the fermentation process.
When cabbage is shredded, salted, and packed very tightly into vessels, it gives off a large amount of juice, so much that it covers the shredded cabbage. The cabbage under the juice does not come into contact with the air. At this point I cover the shredded cabbage with a weight to keep it submerged. Then bacteria start to go to work.
There are bacteria everywhere, and many of them are beneficial bacteria. The bacteria that are present on cabbage leaves feed on the sugars of the cabbage, and convert them into lactic acid. (There is no milk used in the process, it is just that the acid of sauerkraut is similar to the acid of yogurt or quark.) Carbon dioxide is also created in this process. It takes at least a month for sauerkraut to ferment enough to be considered mature. As it is stored it continues to ferment, and sour, but it also becomes mellow, and starts to get the hints of oak, and juniper. Some Europeans like sauerkraut that has been stored for a year or two!
We do not can our sauerkraut, for many reasons. Canned sauerkraut has a flat, dead taste. Most vitamins are cooked out of the sauerkraut, and the crunch is lost. Our sauerkraut is a raw or live food that helps replenish the gut with beneficial bacteria. (People using antibiotics will want to eat our kraut.) Eating it also helps you digest proteins like meat, hence the tradition of hot dogs and sauerkraut. Another interesting fact about raw sauerkraut is that it contains vitamin B-12, which is created in the fermentation process. This makes it a good food to eat for those who do not eat meat. Since our kraut is less salty than the canned brands, there is no need to rinse it before eating, which would wash away most of these benefits.
Making sauerkraut is indeed a nice way for our farm to extend the fall harvest. It is especially rewarding to break open a barrel or jar of kraut in the height of winter, and eat something from the growing season that is still alive but in a different form.
Seth Travins
HVF Farm Sauerkraut Maker and VSP Staff
Anticipated Harvest for September 18th
- Corn (weather permitting)
- Greens
- Lettuce
- Onions
- Tomatoes
- Winter Squash (Delicata)
Luscious Leeks
Although they are great in soups, I prefer my leeks thinly sliced and sautéed in butter or oil until tender. With a little salt and pepper, they make great additions to mashed potatoes, pasta tossed with goat cheese, or turned into a leek tart (take a short cut and use frozen puff pastry as your base).
To clean leeks, cut off most of the tough, dark green leaf tops. Split the leeks lengthwise, almost to the root. Carefully wash out soil from within the layers. Drain well and cut off root ends.
Eduardo’s Gazpacho
The CSA member who sent this in referred to it as “my favorite gazpacho recipe originally from my friend Eduardo, who is from Spain.”
1/2 day-old crusty bread or hero roll
2 - 3 big ripe tomatoes (or 6-8 small)
1 big pepper (any color)
1 cucumber
2 or 3 cloves garlic
red wine vinegar to taste
salt and pepper to taste
other vegetables or herbs as desired
(a handful of basil or parsley, half an avocado, a carrot,
onions, scallions, etc)
1/4 c. olive oil
Soak the bread in water for 1 minute (it will be kind of mushy). Break up bread and combine with all ingredients except oil in the work bowl of a food processor. Start processing these ingredients and add oil as processor pulses. If you like your soup thinner, you may add some water. Chilll before serving. You can serve in a glass, as a drink or serve as a soup with sour cream or yogurt as a garnish. This can also be made in the blender, but you might need to use smaller quantities of tomatoes and vegetables.
Green Beans With Citrus Butter Sauce
At least once CSA member has been browsing through the recipes
at www.epicurious.com.
Like most online recipes sources, if you find something you
like, they provide a link that makes it easy to e-mail the
selected recipe to a certain CSA newsletter editor…
1 pound green beans, trimmed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup low-salt chicken broth
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
Cook beans in large pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Drain well. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add orange peel, lemon peel, and garlic and stir 1 minute. Add broth and simmer 1 minute. Add butter and beans. Toss until beans are heated through and sauce coats beans, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
Makes 4 to 6 servings. From Bon Appétit, June 2002
Lacquered Tofu with Green Beans
1 pound firm tofu, drained
1 red bell pepper
1/4 cup stock
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon mushroom soy sauce
4 teaspoons roasted peanut oil
¼ pound green beans, cut into 2-inch lengths
5 scallions, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1/2 teaspoon toasted Szechwan peppercorns
Salt
¼ cup roasted cashews
Cut the tofu and red pepper into 1 1/2-inch triangles. In a bowl, mix the stock, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic and mushroom soy. Heat 3 teaspoons of oil in a large nonstick skillet. Add the tofu and cook, turning once, until golden; transfer to a plate. Add the remaining teaspoon of oil to the pan; add the beans and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the red pepper and scallions and stir-fry until just tender. Add the tofu and Szechwan peppercorns; sea son with salt. Pour in the sauce and stir gently until the vegetables and tofu are evenly coated. Transfer to a platter and sprinkle with the cashews.
adapted from This Can’t Be Tofu!
by Deborah Madison
The “Thanks” for this week’s recipes go to certain anonymous sources.
No, they’re not in some CSA Recipe Protection Program, it’s just that the senders forgot to sign their e-mail messages!
