I went to the garden and discovered this!!
My wayward chickens had dug out all but a foot of my row of garden lettuce.
I quickly had them arrested.  They spent the night in jail waiting for the jury to deliberate.  The verdict came in this morning…guilty.  They were released after time spent and a wing clipping.
May this offense never happen again. Â If it does…I am afraid they will be sentenced to the soup pot.
Check out the photo and see what 6 heads of cabbage made…well six heads of cabbage and a little hard work…
19 quarts of sauerkraut!
I tried this method of making kraut last March when cabbage was on sale over St. Patrick’s Day. The results were wonderful, so I planted extra cabbage in the garden so I could make more.
The recipe is from an Amish cookbook…
In case you want to give it a try, here’s the recipe.
Cut up cabbage very fine and pack into jars. Punch a hole down through the center. In the hole put 1 t salt, 1 t sugar and 1 t vinegar. Fill the jar with boiling water. Loosely put lids on the jars…then let them sit for 6 weeks. After the six weeks cold pack the jars for 30 minutes.Â
The kraut is wonderful! Check back later in the week and I’ll give you a recipe for our family’s favorite way to eat kraut.
When our daughter Kayla was home last weekend, she did the NICEST thing for me. She helped me weed the garden.Â
My garden has been a mess this year. I planted early, then we had a late frost and I lost my green beans. Then the rabbits found my garden and I lost my second planting of green beans, kolarobi, and beets. Then we got too much rain and my garden doesn’t have the best drainage…..by then, I wasn’t very interested in gardening anymore. Gardening just seemed depressing. Well Kayla helped me weed and I am ready to get back to gardening. But how do I deal with the rabbits?Â
Kayla helped me yet again….she is doing an internship at Living History Farm and they are not allowed to use any chemicals or fertilizer that aren’t appropriate to the time period. She said they sprinkle cayenne pepper around the veggies that the rabbits like to eat. The rabbits don’t like the cayenne so they leave the veggies alone. Well I thought it was worth a try….
When I say that Kayla was so nice to help me, I really mean it. While Kayla is working at Living History Farm, she spends a large portion of her day in the garden. She has absolutely enjoyed her experience. She dresses in period clothing, cooks on a wood stove, cards wool, takes care of animals, makes hats and does anything that is appropriate to the time period. She is going to be learning to use a treadle sewing machine too. This is one lesson I really hope she learns so she can teach me!
Will the cayenne pepper work? I don’t know. I will keep you posted.
