"First Saturday" Garden Day and Sauerkraut Processing

Saturday August 2nd is our next "First Saturday" garden day. We will be multi- tasking more than usual this day. Our plans for the day include the usual garden tasks to be led by Bob, as well as a morning of processing sauerkraut led by Valerie and Matt. The sauerkraut processing will be held at the First Presbyterian Church on the Park in Canton. Folks interested in being involved in the kraut project should go directly to the church no later than 9am. Those folks interested in spending the morning in the garden should be here by 9am. We recommend that folks have only one person per family represented at the kraut workshop. We are also advising that the kraut workshop be a child-free activity. Our permission to use the church is contingent on us being efficient and contained within the kitchen. We have harvested somewhere around 300 lbs of early cabbage and are storing it in Birdsfoot's walk-in cooler. Folks attending the kraut workshop should be prepared to bring a clean, food grade 5 gallon pail (available at Cindy's Cake Shop in Canton for a dollar) and $3 for use of the kitchen. If you own a mandolin slicer please bring it along as well.
Because we will be splitting the day between two venues, we won't plan on having a lunch together this day.
Harvest and distribution will go on as usual. If you are attending the kraut workshop in town and your pick-up day is Saturday, you will need to make the necessary arrangements to get your basket.
Please let us know if you plan on attending the kraut workshop
or if you have any questions.

Shepard Family Pickle Recipe

This recipe comes from Lew, it can be adapted for small batches.


"This is a pickle recipe that my mother used to make. She usually forgot to put all of the sugar in them and they turned out quite sour and very HOT. I loved them and they made me perspire on the top of my head. she never put them in jars. The crock was on the dirt floor in the cellar and we ate them over a period of time, taking them directly from the crock."

300 small cucumbers, about 1 and 1/2 inches long
1 Cup salt
Boiling water
1/2 gallon cider vinegar
4 T sugar
4 T salt
4 T dried mustard
1/2 cup whole mixed pickling spice
3 lbs sugar

Scrub cucumbers, rinse well and place in crock, add the cup of salt and enough boiling water to cover. Let stand over night and in the morning drain and wipe each cucumber. Mix sugar, salt & mustard together. Add vinegar and spices( spices may go in loose or tied in cheese cloth). Stir well. add cucumbers. Cover well. For the next 16 days , add 1/2 cup sugar, stirring until dissolved. When all sugar has been added, place pickles in jars, cover with the cold liquid and seal.

Still Life With Shallots

If you haven't already, you will soon be receiving shallots.
These bulbs will need to cure in order to store well.
Tie a handful of shallots around their necks and hang them somewhere dry, OUT of the sun, and well ventillated.
Once cured, the bulbs will keep until next spring.

We will be hanging some here if you need an example.

The garlic will need similar care once we harvest it in early August.
However, garlic does not keep as well as shallots
More on that later.