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Gardening, Pickling, Fermenting?

I

Iron_llama

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2020
Messages
2,236
Location
NW MN
A couple of things to lay the groundwork here:
1) I'm doing the low-carb thing, and eating a lot of vegetables. This includes both salads, and cabbage stir-fry
2) I'm planning a very optimistic garden, in the assumption that the ground will thaw in northern MN sometime before deer season. I've had gardens before, but nothing on the scale I'm planning.
3) I'd rather grow a year's supply of cabbage than buy it at the grocery store.
4) I've got years of experience pressure-canning meats and beans and other low-acid foods, but I've never pickled anything.

Since I can't can or freeze lettuce or other salad greens, I'm looking at 'putting up' cabbage for the long winter. I like and eat both sauerkraut and kimchi. I've been reading up on various pickled salads, and different 'fusion' fermented cabbage recipes.
I know there are a bunch of canners, and gardeners, in the group. Any advice I should know about? Any vegetables or strains to avoid, or seek out?
I've got a couple of bags of Cleveland-brand sauerkraut, and they look like live-culture foods. I've got the idea that I could use the brine from one of these, or a jar of kimchi, to make my own "fermented salad" from cabbage I grow. Anyone ever done this? How does home-fermented cabbage hold up to winter storage?

Thanks in advance!
 
Good luck! Wish I had more space with sun, we're pretty much all shaded. Lots of climbing practice trees but my garden is just a couple 6 x 12 boxes. We do an early radish, greens, and peas we're getting close to harvest time then they come out and tomatoes, zukes, and peppers go in.

I did a fermented pepper sauce last year with tabasco chiles. The plant went bonkers and the sauce had amazing flavor but was way too hot for me to do very much with unless I diluted it way down. I want to try something similar but milder.

Growing up my pap had a big 1/3 acre garden. We grew it all. Cabbage and brocolli were two we always struggled with. They had a tendency to be quite wormy.
 
Thanks! I've got a couple of 4x8 raised beds I can assemble, and I'm planning on prepping a half-dozen straw bales. I've got full sun in my garden plot, but I need to fence it in before I can actually plant.
 
elk yinzer said:
Good luck! Wish I had more space with sun, we're pretty much all shaded. Lots of climbing practice trees but my garden is just a couple 6 x 12 boxes. We do an early radish, greens, and peas we're getting close to harvest time then they come out and tomatoes, zukes, and peppers go in.

I did a fermented pepper sauce last year with tabasco chiles. The plant went bonkers and the sauce had amazing flavor but was way too hot for me to do very much with unless I diluted it way down. I want to try something similar but milder.

Growing up my pap had a big 1/3 acre garden. We grew it all. Cabbage and brocolli were two we always struggled with. They had a tendency to be quite wormy.
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I had better luck with purple cabbage as the little white moths that lay eggs for cabbage worms don't seem to bother them as bad.
 
I always had trouble with cabbage moths as well. You can cover the cabbage with remay,a fine cloth that let's rain and sun in,but it has to be secured well at the edges.
I make Sauerkraut and it is pretty straightforward,but when it has been going for 6 weeks or so I take it out of the crock and refrigerate it. It will keep getting softer and more Sauer if you let it sit in the salt brine. Whole cabbage heads store well in a root cellar too temps around 40 and high humidity.
I have a crock from Germany that has water around the lid to make a 2nd seal to keep air out besides the cabbage being submerged. Pretty failsafe,but the plate to weigh it down works too.
 
Still Kicking said:
I had better luck with purple cabbage as the little white moths that lay eggs for cabbage worms don't seem to bother them as bad.
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That's a good tip, thanks!

Bowmanmike said:
I always had trouble with cabbage moths as well. You can cover the cabbage with remay,a fine cloth that let's rain and sun in,but it has to be secured well at the edges.
I make Sauerkraut and it is pretty straightforward,but when it has been going for 6 weeks or so I take it out of the crock and refrigerate it. It will keep getting softer and more Sauer if you let it sit in the salt brine. Whole cabbage heads store well in a root cellar too temps around 40 and high humidity.
I have a crock from Germany that has water around the lid to make a 2nd seal to keep air out besides the cabbage being submerged. Pretty failsafe,but the plate to weigh it down works too.
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Thanks! I'll have to find some remay when the time comes.
 
Gator said:
Curious as to why you say this. We freeze spinach all the time and though I'm not 100% sure, I think we have froze leaf lettuce before as well.
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I mis-spoke, thanks. Yes, you can freeze spinach, but the salad I've made from frozen spinach hasn't been palatable. It's great for cooking, though.
 
Iron_llama said:
I mis-spoke, thanks. Yes, you can freeze spinach, but the salad I've made from frozen spinach hasn't been palatable. It's great for cooking, though.
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Ah, gotcha. The more I think about it, I guess wife does use the frozen in those weird smoothies she drinks in the morning
 
I had originally decided to give up on the garden this year, but recently changed my mind and decided to just try to grow some berries/fruit for a hopefully lower maintenance "garden". Still need to weed the fence, but spent the last two days getting the weeds out of the beds and grass/weeds cut back surrounding. My strawberries from last year survived so I split a few and moved them (they were only in half of the bed last year, had watermelon grow over top of them from the other half).

Then I found some raspberry and blueberry bushes to plant, looking for either golden raspberries or blackberries to put in the last bed.

Some pumpkin plants are growing from where I tossed last year's jackolantern innards and such, so I'm going to let them take over that mound of dirt and may add some squash plants, may not. (Not pictured, to the left of the photo).

Need to figure out that last bed, I may go for some pickling cucumbers or some peppers, also need to weed the fence line, and build a cage/netting to protect the beds from the local squirrels/deer next.

Screenshot_20230423-133841.png
 
The strawberries don't like raised beds in Illinois winters. I had them completely wiped out two years in a row but they did well between the beds for six years. Good luck with your garden!
 
Still Kicking said:
The strawberries don't like raised beds in Illinois winters. I had them completely wiped out two years in a row but they did well between the beds for six years. Good luck with your garden!
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Our winter here was milder than usual I think, we barely even got snow, so I'm sure that helped them survive, but I'm zone 7 over here so fingers crossed I think I should be ok for a more normal Maryland winter as well
 
Well, much later than usual start here but I'm starting. Going to start seeds this weekend and getting my garden back under control after a year off. I hung my grow lights with loops made with a Blake's hitch :). Couldn't help it
 
I grow a lot of things that don’t require refrigeration for long term storage and highly suggest it to anyone who wants to grow a lot of their own food. Dry goods, root cellar items and canned goods. I also freeze some things but I need all the space I can for venison and fish.
 
Jammintree said:
I grow a lot of things that don’t require refrigeration for long term storage and highly suggest it to anyone who wants to grow a lot of their own food. Dry goods, root cellar items and canned goods. I also freeze some things but I need all the space I can for venison and fish.
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So your storing tubers and winter squash mostly? And other roots like carrots, beets? Curious because a root cellar is on my dream list. Did you already have a cellar or build one or use some of the smller scale solutions? I appreciate any info!

I mostly can but would like to start dehydrating too, I have options but haven't got serious yet. I think it'd be cool to make ground spices like onion power, garlic powder, Chipotle powder. Just haven't got around to it
 
Horn said:
So your storing tubers and winter squash mostly? And other roots like carrots, beets? Curious because a root cellar is on my dream list. Did you already have a cellar or build one or use some of the smller scale solutions? I appreciate any info!

I mostly can but would like to start dehydrating too, I have options but haven't got serious yet. I think it'd be cool to make ground spices like onion power, garlic powder, Chipotle powder. Just haven't got around to it
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Yeah, several kinds of squash, pumpkins, carrots, beets, and lots of onions and garlic. All of which can last all the way till spring. The squash and Pumpkins even do fine at room temp in a closet.

For dry storage, beans and corn are really easy.
I just got a dehydrator last fall. I dehydrated a bunch of zucchini and cherry tomatoes. In the future I plan to dehydrate shiitake mushrooms which are really easy to grow. You can rehydrate them and wouldn’t even know they had been dried. Apple slices are easy to dry on a string in the house, particularly if you have a wood stove to quickly suck the water out.

I can all sorts of stuff. Salsa and pasta sauce are always easy. Depending on the year I can different kinds of Pickles and relishes - dilly beans, pickled cukes, hot peppers, relish. Some years I’ve canned bbq sauce, hot sauce and ketchup - which can be made from any number of domesticared and wild foods - my favorite is using rose hips. Also jams and jellies are nice to have around.

If I can free up some space for another chest freezer I may freeze more this year. It’s insanely easy to do. Watching how much frozen vegetables my girlfriend buys to feed her kids inspires me to spend more time freezing Brussels sprouts, broccoli, peas, roasted red peppers and frozen berries are always a favorite and are easy to do.

the hardest part is being available to do the work when the work needs doing. It’s a hard sell for the modern mind: you can’t really schedule time for it, you just have to do the work whenever the food is ripe.
 
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