What a crock.

No seriously, it's a crock! I was at the local Wilco Farm Store yesterday looking for canning jars and generally poking about in the canning section while my daughter was amusing herself riding the pint-sized tractor. I was about finished with my selections when I happened to glance down to the bottom shelf and realized they had 3 gallon stoneware pickling crocks in stock! It takes so little to make me happy...I squee'd out loud, grabbed one, and stuffed all my pickling supplies inside it.

I'd been on a quest for a stoneware pickling crock for a couple of weeks. For my first batch of dill pickles I used a plastic vacu-sealing bucket, but if I'm going to be soaking foods in acids I'd rather have something besides plastic (even though this particular bucket is deemed "okay" chemically, it just seems better to use stoneware or glass.) I'd searched local secondhand stores, and though I'd found a couple that were gallon sized and would have worked, I hadn't found what I really wanted. I looked online, and while I could find listings for them, most of them were out of stock. Even Lehman's page for crocks marked them all as out of stock; it looks like perhaps one of the primary manufacturers has gone out of business. Of the couple I found, the shipping was in the $20-$30 range, so I saved quite a bit by finding one locally. When I told my husband I'd found one at Wilco, he said, "Go buy another one." Not one to need a lot of encouragement when it comes to geeky old-fashioned farmlike equipment, I swung by there tonight on my way home and dashed in 10 minutes before closing to snag one of their last 3 crocks. Turns out Todd's mother also has a 3 gallon one that used to belong to her mother, which has been sitting in her living room and likely functioning as a plant holder, and which she offered to let me use. More pickles!

So today I stopped by BiZi Farm (support your local farm!) and picked up 6 heads of cabbage, 2 cauliflowers, and a bunch of celery, plus a bag of Bob's Red Mill 13 Bean Soup Mix, some lemon cucumbers, a few peaches, and a book on Log Cabin Cooking since I'm a sucker for pioneer recipes. I came home and shredded all the cabbage and started it fermenting for sauerkraut in one of the new crocks, then I chopped up all the cauliflower and celery plus a row of carrots from our garden and made 5 quarts of pickled vegetable mix for Todd's snacking pleasure. After that, I chopped up 6 pounds of pickling cucumbers and made 11 pints of sweet pickle chips, and started another 10 pounds of dill pickles brining in my other stoneware crock.

And I'm still getting around 5 pounds of cucumbers per day from my garden. Oh dear. I think I shall soon be offering cucumbers to unsuspecting passers-by!

Homemade Sauerkraut

* 20 pounds of cabbage (approximately 6 heads)
* 3/4 cup pickling and canning salt (or NON IODIZED, non-rock salt like Kosher salt)
* 3 gallon crock
* plate or wooden disk that fits inside the crock with 1/4-1/2" clearance around the edges
* cheesecloth

Wash the cabbage heads, remove any wilted leaves. Quarter the heads and remove the core. Cut into very fine shreds, about 1/16" inch, using a sharp knife or a food processor or mandoline. In a large, non-aluminum bowl, place 5 pounds of shreds with 3 tablespoons of the pickling salt. Toss to cover, then allow to rest for 5-10 minutes or until wilted. Pack down firmly into the clean crock, using a wooden tamper if you have one. (The head of a wooden tenderizing mallet will work, or use your hands.)

Repeat with the rest of the cabbage and salt, pressing down firmly on the cabbage in the crock after adding each layer and before adding the next. The cabbage should begin to shed its liquid, and by the time you reach the end of the packing, you should have enough liquid to cover the shredded cabbage. (If you do not, add a brine made of 1-1/2 tablespoons of salt per quart of water until there is sufficient liquid to cover the cabbage entirely.)

Place a layer of cheesecloth on top of the cabbage, and top with a plate or a wooden sauerkraut "lid". Add a weight (a ziploc bag full of water, a canning jar full of water, etc.) to the top of the plate to ensure that the cabbage all stays submerged. Allow to ferment between 55 and 75 degrees for 3-6 weeks. Fermentation is done when bubbles cease to form after the sides are tapped to remove bubbles. If a scum forms on the top, skim it off. Switch plates to a clean one if necessary.

Bring sauerkraut to a simmer (185 to 210degrees F). DO NOT BOIL. Sterilize canning jars and equipment per manufacture instructions, leave jars hot. Pack hot cabbage into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles with a non-metal spatula run around the inside of the jar. Adjust caps. Process pints 15 minutes, quarts 20 minutes, in a boiling water canner.