07/24/2026
🌿 Preserving the Harvest: Traditional Sauerkraut
Today I had a few heads of cabbage that needed used, so I figured it was the perfect place to kick off a new series... Preserving the Harvest!
One of the things I love most about preserving food is that it doesn't always require a pantry full of ingredients or fancy equipment. Today's project only needed fresh cabbage, kosher salt, a kitchen scale, and a couple of mason jars.
Here's exactly what I did...
🥬 I started by removing the outer leaves and setting a few aside to use later.
🥬 Then I quartered each cabbage, removed the core, and sliced it into thin strips.
🥬 Next came the important part—I weighed the shredded cabbage. This lets me add the correct amount of salt instead of guessing. I use 2% salt by weight, which worked out to:
• 800 grams cabbage = 16 grams salt
• 938 grams cabbage = 19 grams salt
🥬 I sprinkled the salt over the cabbage and massaged it with my hands for several minutes. At first it doesn't seem like much is happening, but don't give up! The cabbage slowly softens and begins releasing its own liquid.
🥬 Once there was plenty of natural brine, I packed the cabbage tightly into quart jars, pressing it down as I went so the liquid rose above the cabbage.
🥬 Remember those outer leaves? I tucked one on top of each jar to help keep everything submerged beneath the brine. That's one of the secrets to a happy ferment.
The method I'm using is a simple mason jar ferment, so for the next couple of weeks I'll be opening each jar once a day to "burp" it. As the cabbage ferments, it creates carbon dioxide, and burping the jars lets that gas escape while giving me a chance to make sure everything is still staying below the brine. It's a quick daily check-in that only takes a minute.
Now the hard part... waiting! Over the next few weeks, nature does the rest. Good bacteria transform simple cabbage into tangy, crunchy, probiotic-rich sauerkraut.
I love this process because it's a reminder that preserving food doesn't always mean pulling out the canner. Sometimes all it takes is a little salt, a little patience, and letting nature do what it has done for generations.
This is just the beginning of the Preserving the Harvest series. Over the next several weeks we'll tackle water bath canning, pressure canning, freezing, dehydrating, fermentation, and all kinds of ways to make the most of what's growing in the garden.
What's sitting in your garden right now that needs preserved? 🌱🥬🍅🫑 I might just tackle that one next!
