In the cabbage patch

I had two heads of cabbage sitting around that I was meaning to make in to sauerkraut, but didn't have time.

One of the reasons I didn't have time is that on Thursday night I went to see a speaker on parenting issues. In particular, power struggles. One of the main lessons for me was that getting enough sleep is important for family harmony. And one way to encourage that to happen is to turn off the TV & computers after dinner.

So Saturday night we did just that. Now I needed something to do. So I invited my 3 1/2 year old to join me for making sauerkraut.

I figured it would include some of his favorite things:

- Hitting. Cabbage instead of people
- Salt. Lots of it.
- Time with Dad.

So I cleaned the counter, and started slicing cabbage. His job was to grind coarse sea salt on to the cabbage, load it in to the crock, and then grind some more salt.

He would step every minute or so to take apart the salt grinder, or to eat salt off the counter. He knew I was watching, so he would try to hid behind his hand or turn away. Heh.

Finally we got all the cabbage loaded in to the crock, and I put the plate on top. It was too tight a fit, snagging on the sides of the crock. Then I remembered Sandorkraut's advice to put some of the previous batch on top to help it get going. I added enough to hold the plate up & stop it from binding.

The new batch is now fermenting away, and the previous batch is packed in to jars in the fridge. I had some with dinner last night. Yum.

I also started a sourdough starter last night. Combine flour & water. Stir daily. Feed it every 3 days or so. In a week you'll have "naturally leavened" dough, ready to go. We'll see.