Cabbage & Kohlrabi

As the chilly fall weather causes the ground to thaw and freeze ever more deeply I finally decided it was time to liberate our cabbage from the trench they have been hiding in for the past several weeks. The root cellar is now complete as the cabbage join the rest of our edibles in a state of almost suspended animation awaiting their turn at the table.

With the weather, a couple weeks back, dropping into the high teens for a few days and the root cellar still a tad too warm at that time (45-50°) I dug a trench and laid out our cabbage between layers of straw and covered with a few spare pieces of plywood with dirt on top. This thirty minute procedure allowed me a grace period of almost three weeks. Theoretically, cabbage can be stored this way for many months if your trench is dug deeply and the insulation (straw, leaves, soil) is thick enough. Unfortunately, unless I want to tunnel into 100" of snow (packed), which is what we received this past winter, entrenching my cabbage is not a viable solution for us. We always struggle with the storage of our cabbage and I really want to keep them as a reliable food source for as long as possible this year since we did have quite a few, so I am hoping that bringing them into the cellar after it has cooled will make a difference.

Blink your eyes and summer's over, it seems as though we just finished planting our little brassica seedlings and now they have come full term. We pulled the majority our kohlrabi a couple weeks back and have them stored away. I grew three varieties this year and one called Gigante did surprisingly well for us, as large as some of them got they still remained tender and crisp under their bumpy skins. Over the years kohlrabi has become a staple in our diet, usually grated raw over our salads. If you have never grown them before I highly recommend you try as they will thrive anywhere cabbage and broccoli can be grown. If they receive plenty of water and are grown in a loose composted soil even our large ones do not seem to get woody but remain tender and sweet.

June kohlrabi, all leaves and no body

Kohlrabi, trimmed and ready to be tucked away into the root cellar

Most of our storage cabbage were red varieties as they always seem to keep the best for us. We are in the process of turning the green ones, mostly Late Flat Dutch and Danish Ballhead, into sauerkraut. This year we canned some of our kraut for the first time as a test to see how we liked it "cooked" but the rest will be eaten in a more raw state throughout the winter.

The kraut on the left just came out of the canner and the fresh stuff is about to be cut up for a more natural, crisp kraut.

Some of the smaller cabbage are still in the field and actually weathered the cold spell quite well. Every day or so I pick a couple that are still in good shape. The Ruby Ball seems to be especially tolerant and has so far managed to survive the cold and even a bit of snow this year. The smaller kohlrabi that were left behind were pretty much ruined (frozen solid) but still able to provide us and our chickens with very fine greens once they had thawed.

Our first snow day, (six hours of falling slush) hit about a week ago, this is one of many little cabbage left out in the weather. Still perfectly edible.