Well, our cabbage has come in and that usually means one thing for a lot of people. Sauerkraut! We’re going to talk about it!
Sauerkraut is usually most gardener’s first foray into fermentation. Often times, though, they may not even realize that they’re practicing fermentation when they first do it! However, fermentation at its core is creating a salted brine and controlling temperatures to promote the growth of lactobacillus bacteria. This results in that sour flavor and reasonably long shelf life, essentially rendering the food safe for a period of time. The salted brine also prevents “bad” stuff from growing in the food, effectively rendering it safe and preserved.
Fermented food has been around for a very, very long time. While it’s certainly seen recent popularity, fermentation goes back to some of the earliest times in human civilization. Fermentation was truly one of the earliest forms of food preservation and was how a lot of foods were kept prior to the advent of refrigeration.
You might even think that Sauerkraut, being a German word, would indicate that this amazing ferment came from Germany. Funny enough, the Roman empire documented pickled cabbage and the Chinese were feasting on it when they built the Great Wall of China. It was likely popular in a lot of other places before the Germans also started practicing pickled cabbage. However, the word we commonly use for it (Sauerkraut) is indeed a German word and it means “sour cabbage.”
In our early days of sauerkraut, we used to can a lot of it. As we gained more knowledge about food bioactivity and its role in human health, we now only make and eat “fresh” sauerkraut. The canning process destroys pretty much everything that is good about fermented foods. While canned sauerkraut is still food and will provide calories and some nutrition, you’re losing out on a ton of bioactive nutrition that fermented foods bring. You might observe how we often talk about moving away from canning towards other preservation practices. These decisions are also rooted in that knowledge, too.
A really cool thing about sauerkraut that may not be well known is that there’s massive regionality to it. You can explore all sorts of different types of sauerkraut. Lately, we’ve heavily gravitated towards krauts that are popular in places like Estonia, Lithuania, Russia, Poland and Ukraine. This kraut is often made with carrots, but you also see things like caraway seed, apples, and cranberries added as well. We love putting in a little Alaskan flair by using High or Low bush cranberries.
Since we mentioned health, we’ll explore that briefly. Fermented foods are quite literally producing life, meaning there’s enhanced bioactivity compared to a lot of foods. If left unpasteurized and uncooked, this process creates a lot of beneficial microbes and enzymes, which aid the body in breaking down foods into usable nutrition. In addition, ferments are not unlike a natural probiotic, meaning they promote healthy digestion and can protect against many diseases in the digestive tract. In fact, uncooked sauerkraut is actually more nutritious than the cabbage itself, producing significant vitamin C and K.
Some people get squeamish about this kind of thing, but fermentation is actually quite safe and rooted in scientific certainties. While you certainly may have heard stories of people “burying kraut in their backyard,” there are definitely ways to practice making it using modern equipment and overall safer techniques. As you can see, we use modern fermentation kits and this is our recommended approach to any kind of fermentation. (Not to mention, those “burying” techniques are not even gonna work at our latitude.)
As for us, sauerkraut is not a “one and done” thing, just around harvest time. We make several batches of kraut, typically over the winter months. Sometimes its with our home grown cabbage, sometimes its store bought. Both are excellent, but we’ll obviously take what we can get from our crops!
We hope you enjoyed our brief foray into the history, health and practice of making sauerkraut!
