52 Weeks to Preparedness Week 37

52 WEEKS TO FAMILY PREPAREDNESS FOR TWO

WEEK #37
Follow this for painless preparedness that will get you going on the path to being ready for catastrophic events and that, at the end of the year, will leave you in the best position to thrive in the event of any emergency.

You can do this! The cost is spread out over a full year, plus you will have a year to work out your storage. Substitute where appropriate depending on personal needs/requirements.


Food Storage  Fruit or other powdered drink to make 30 quarts
 
Extra Item    Shampoo, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste to last six months

Sauerkraut update - Week 1 1/2

Uh oh.... mold!  Or is it?  It's white stuff, looks like opaque bubbles at the edges of the plate that keeps the cabbage submerged.  It's kind of icky looking.

Looking down into the crock.

Now what?  Should I remove that stuff?  Do I wait till Saturday or do I remove it now?  Would leaving it there keep more from forming?  It doesn't look ugly at this point, being white, and since the directions mentioned mold I'm not (very) upset, but still....

The good news is that I'm smelling a faint aroma of real sauerkraut!  Yay!

Sauerkraut update - week 1

I tasted the sauerkraut yesterday.  The good news is that there was no mold and it didn't taste bad.  There's no bad news, actually.

While it doesn't taste like cabbage any more, the flavor wasn't sauerkraut-sour either, so it'll have to ferment a while longer.  I'm not so sure the cumin will turn out to be a great flavor to have added, but oh well, too late now.  I'll continue to check the brine level daily and otherwise just keep the crock cool, and will report again on this project next weekend.

52 Weeks to Preparedness Week 36

52 WEEKS TO FAMILY PREPAREDNESS FOR TWO

WEEK #36
Follow this for painless preparedness that will get you going on the path to being ready for catastrophic events and that, at the end of the year, will leave you in the best position to thrive in the event of any emergency.

You can do this! The cost is spread out over a full year, plus you will have a year to work out your storage. Substitute where appropriate depending on personal needs/requirements.


Food Storage  8 cans of soup
 
Extra Item    2 months of laundry soap

Sauerkraut hint: Keep it cool

It's only been a few days now, so I don't really have much of a report to make.  I don't have a basement, so I'm keeping the crock in my kitchen sink in a pan with a little cool water in the bottom.  The evaporation keeps the crock cooler than air temperature. This is an old-time trick for keeping something cooler than room temperature, and you can add to the effect by draping a kitchen towel over the crock and letting the ends dip into the water so that it wicks up and evaporates, adding to the cooling effect.

You don't have to keep your crock in a sink if you don't have a basement - you could keep it in a closet or someplace that just doesn't tend to get warm, but an enamel sink (or bathtub) tends to keep itself cooler than air temp for some reason. Plus I am perfectly capable of totally forgetting about the sauerkraut if I stashed it somewhere out of the way.

So far the sauerkraut is smelling fine, and there's no sign of mold.  I have a 16 oz. glass of water sitting on the plate to weight it down and that seems to be working just fine.  This weekend I'll remove the glass and the plate, peel back the covering leaves and do a taste test!

Sauerkraut "crock"

Just thought I'd show you what I'm fermenting my sauerkraut in.  It's not yet 24 hours and the contents already smell like sauerkraut - I'm excited!

Click on image to enlarge.  Please forgive my spelling of "cannister" in the image!

This canister is way big for the amount of sauerkraut, but it's what I had handy.  If you click on the image you can see a bit of liquid in the dish - when I push down on it to make sure that the cabbage isn't exposed to air, some of the brine naturally fills the dish.  Those little floating bits are dill, not bugs!  

Also, you shouldn't be using your fingers to press down on whatever weight you're using if it means your fingers touch the liquid or touch the weight where it will have contact with the liquid unless you've just washed your hands. Unwashed fingers are a big source of microbes that could contaminate your lovely fermentation microbes.  I use two chopsticks to press down but of course you can use anything that'll do the job as long as it's clean.

52 Weeks to Preparedness Week 35

I seem to have lost week 35 somewhere.  I'll find it eventually!

Added 09/13/13:  This was a week off, I guess.  There's less to do from here to the end of the 52 weeks, too!