The spring of 1938 Leora bought day-old Leghorn chicks from Pop Scott’s, for fried chicken and for eggs to eat and sell. The Wilson family planted lettuce, spinach, onions, green beans, bushels of tomatoes and the nicest cabbage they’d ever raised. Leora poured suds water from the family wash over the cabbage plants to ward off worms. She sold some of the cabbage to a local grocer and Clabe made sauerkraut in ten-gallon stone jars.
To make kraut, Leora chopped the cabbage and Clabe added kosher salt to it in large crocks. He cut boards to fit into the top of the crocks, weighting the boards with bricks to keep the cabbage under the brine as it began to form.
Autumn is the best time to make sauerkraut since late season varieties of cabbage contain more natural sugars that help with fermentation.
—–
I didn’t find a recipe for sauerkraut among Grandma Leora’s keepsakes. Perhaps Clabe just made it from memory, but here is a simple recipe.
In Leora’s little Memorandum book, dated March 31st, 1915, she wrote and pasted recipes. One is for cabbage salad dressing.
Cabbage Salad Dressing One egg Butter size of an egg One teaspoon of cornstarch Two tablespoons of sugar One-half cup of sweet milk Boil all this and then pour over chopped cabbage.
From Leora’s Dexter Stories.