Puddles are superior drinking water evidently.
John is a great believer in fermented foods – most especially sauerkraut (he is of German extraction – the extraction being way way back in the mists of time). 
Live foods are incredibly food for the gut and therefore the general well being of the consumer. Pasteurised and ultra pasteurised are nice and safe for a paranoid public but leave out a number of live enzymes that our stomach needs to digest foods. Raw milk, good yoghurt, pickles in organic vinegars, salsa – all these are great to eat and good for the digestion. And John maintains that all natural sauerkraut is the best of them all. He has a special crock, kind of like this one, which is designed to exclude air completely and he makes a batch every month. It is very sour and very good. 
After cutting it and pounding it into submission, he adds a little salt
and the fresh whey left over from the mornings yoghurt making. 
Then packs it tightly into the crock, covers it in the last of the whey and water then leaves it to work for a month. There is a little rim of fluid visible around the lid and this is kept topped up with water during the fermenting period so that no air can reach the cabbage at all. The rest is all fermenting magic. I drained a batch of yoghurt so that I could make labneh, which I mixed with chopped spring onions and olives to have with a cracker and a drink, it being Friday and all. Live food! Good!
The Daily View.
Good morning. I hope you are all going to have some loveliness today.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
51 responses to “Drinking from Puddles and making Sauerkraut with Whey”
Feeling very springlike this morning…is it April already? 😉
I just love it that John is your Official Fermenter…I’ll bet that kraut is wonderful.
It is sour, but a nice complement to many dishes.. plus sometimes we just need to eat stuff that is good for us.. c
Morning Celie, Nice to see Tonton in the daily view. Sauerkraut is something I can’t abide! Each to his own. What you say about fermenting explains why people seem to like beer! 😀
and WINE! Wine is good!! morning ViV c
Oh I don’t know, live food does sound rather suspicious! 😉
Indeed..but at least it does not wriggle!! {{laughter!}}.. c
Bad minds think alike then! 😉
Love it. I totally agree. Nothing better than raw milk and raw food of all kinds!
We love it too. In fact when the teenager is away the only thing he misses is the raw milk.. c
That stuff sounds gross….lol
Oh you just hate vegetables!
Not all vegtables…just those kind…haha.
Mitch..your Gpa D and that side of the family made all kinds of strange things like that! 🙂 Keep at it C..sounds great..and wonderful to see you yesterday..wish I had your tan!
Oh Connie…I know this…but I sour kraut is one think I can’t bring myself to eat. Maybe that is why his side of the family moved over here years ago…lol
you got some good shot..
I have yet to make kraut but plan on trying it. I need a smaller crock as the only one I currently have is 20 gallons and I think that might be too much to try at once. 🙂 I may make yogurt next week but today is baking day! It’s supposed to be 67F!!! here today. And in the 40’s again by Monday. Sigh. I wish we’d have a real winter but at least we’re getting pretty regular moisture here. Have a great day Celi.
Morning C – Very windy and cold here in SE MN. Love the new header — amazed at how big Bobby B has gotten. Sauerkraut — it’s been years since I made any like that – might have to try it again some time. Stay warm — don’t get blown away.
My Dad, of full German heritage, always made sauerkraut, too. And horseradish. My family still carries on with the horseradish making tradition.
I was just going to warn you about the cold and windy weather perhaps moving your way from Minnesota. But I see Vesta has done that. Vesta–that’s the name of my hometown in southwestern Minnesota.
I love sauerkraut and have tried making it a few times, but can never get it to come out quite right. Most of the recipes I’ve tried call for a lot of salt and so, it always comes out too salty. Someday I’ll get the salt ratio just right. Great series of shots. Puddles are popular around here too. 🙂
You are very fortunate to grow your own food, we cannot get anything but pasteurized.
It’s really warm in Toronto today, already around 11C! Have a great day C!
Sadly Sauerkraut gives me such bad acid indigestion I can’t eat it 😦 No problems with raw milk or yoghurt though 😉
Sounds good!
Miss Muffet might not have been so skittish if she had eaten sauerkraut and whey…
Finally found some raw goat milk for my premie lamb the other day. Transitioning over from formula and hoping for the best.