Happy Labor Day, everyone! We are celebrating here by doing what we do best! Working hard. The best kind of labor is when we can use our skills to produce for ourselves!
Today is the day where we process our sauerkraut. This year, we grew a specific cabbage variety just for our kraut and we’re really, really excited about it. This variety is called Filderkraut. It derives its name from the Filder Plains in Germany. If you’re familiar with the country, this would be where Stuttgart is located, almost smack in the middle of Germany. There’s a couple really cool things about this cabbage.
First, you’ll observe it’s pointy shape. Truth be told, this is more along the shape of a “traditional” cabbage. Modern cabbage has been bred to be more round, primarily for the mechanization used to harvest and process them. This is our first time growing a “pointy” cabbage, but for processing by hand, we all ready prefer this more traditional shape.
Second, this variety is celebrated among the towns and villages where it is grown. The aptly named Filderkraut Fest is a multi-week festival, dedicated to the harvest of this cabbage. Germans from all around visit for a literal cabbage-fest, gorging on Filderkraut inspired foods. We think America doesn’t have nearly enough cool festivals and holidays like this, so we’re having our own “Filderkraut Fest” right here in Fairbanks, Alaska!
The Filderkraut cabbage was originally bred in approximately the 1600’s by German monks. While it has seen somewhat recent popularity around the world, this particular variety is still not particularly common to see grown. We’re quite happy to add it to our repertoire and have enjoyed using this cabbage this season!
We hope you all have a great Labor Day! We’re super looking forward to our sauerkraut, but it’ll be 5-6 weeks before it’s ready!
