Not a fan of sauerkraut?

You’ll love Golden Sauerkraut! It’s chock-full of colorful veggies – you won’t even taste the cabbage!

With a sunny yellow-orange color, Golden Sauerkraut not only looks cheerful, it sparkles with the clean, bright flavor of fresh ginger and is a wonderful way to add turmeric to your diet for its proven health benefits. Inspired by a recipe for a fermented vegetable mixture from Mercola.com.

Golden Sauerkraut, or Goldenkraut, combines a basketful of nutrient-dense vegetables:

• Fresh ginger root
• Fresh turmeric root
• Habañero pepper, optional
• Garlic
• Golden beets
• Sweet potato
• Carrots
• Parsnip
• Celery
• Apple or pear
• Cabbage

You can use powdered ginger and turmeric from your spice rack in a pinch, but if you are able to source them fresh, I highly recommend it for flavor.

Can’t find a habañero pepper? Go ahead and use another spicy pepper or 1/2 teaspoon (or more) red pepper flakes.

Cabbage plays a supportive role rather than a dominant one.

Do yourself a favor and use as many organic veggies as you can. You will need about 6 pounds (3 kg) of vegetables, weighed before you prepare them.

Keep in mind this is more of a template than a recipe, so exact amounts are not crucial.

If you have not seen or heard of golden beets, I encourage you to look for them. They are often in the produce department right next to traditional red beets. If you cannot find them, you can use red beets and make a brilliant coral-colored kraut instead.

Prep the veggies

Remove a few outer leaves of cabbage and set aside for topping the jars later.

Cut cabbage head in eighths, thinly slice, and sprinkle with salt in an extra-large (8 quart / 8 liter) bowl. Massage cabbage with your hands to incorporate the salt. The cabbage will begin releasing liquid as it sits.

Wash and prep the veggies for grating, removing any scabby portions of skin. It is okay not to peel! Peels contain fiber, nutrition, and lactobacillus bacteria that contribute to a successful ferment.

A food processor with grating disk makes grating the bulk of the veggies quick and easy. Or use a box grater instead.

Add grated veggies to the bowl as you go – and enjoy the vivid colors! Slice the celery with the slicing disk in the food processor or use a chef’s knife.

Fresh ginger, fresh turmeric root, garlic, and habañero comprise the aromatics in this recipe. They contribute incredible flavor!

The aromatics are easily minced in the food processor with the S-blade.

Mix with salt

Mix with hands until well combined, adding remaining salt. Wear a clean pair of kitchen gloves to avoid burning your skin with hot pepper. Squeeze the veggies in your hands as you mix to break down fibers or if this is too tiring for your hands set the bowl aside for 30-45 minutes and let time and salt do the work.

Pack into jars

Pack veggies into clean wide-mouth quart jars with hands, a kraut stomper, or wooden spoon. Leave 1 1/2 inches (4-5 cm) headspace. Notice the liquid rising above the veggies.

Fold reserved cabbage leaf to fit inside the jar, covering the top of the veggies. Press down until brine rises above the cabbage leaf.

Label each jar with a piece of masking tape that includes:

• Start – today’s date
• Chill – 3 days from today
• Done – 2 weeks from chill date

Ferment

Add lids to jars, leaving just shy of tight for carbon dioxide to escape. Place jars on a moisture-proof tray or casserole dish in a place that maintains an even temperature between 60-75F (16-24C) and out of sunlight.

Burp jars daily by loosening the lid and then re-tightening (not all the way tight) to release pent-up carbon dioxide.

Hint: In the warmer weather of late summer and fall I place ferments on the kitchen floor where it is cooler and cover them with a towel to exclude sunlight. In cooler months, I place them in the cabinet over the fridge, which I have nicknamed my “fermentation cupboard.”

After 3 days, transfer the jars to cool storage. This can be the fridge or an unheated cool storeroom that stays cool. 45-55F (7-13C) is ideal, but my storeroom warms up to 70F (21C) in the summer and it’s fine.

Eat by the forkful

After 2-3 weeks in cool storage, the ferment is complete. Taste it! It should taste bright and refreshing with a pleasing crunch.

The easiest way to incorporate fermented vegetables into your diet is to load a fork and add it to each plate. You will appreciate the medley of flavor in every forkful of delicious fermented Goldenkraut! Your body will appreciate the probiotic digestive benefits.

Making your own staples, such as fermented vegetables, broth, cooked-from-scratch beans, and bread is a cost-effective way to add more wholesome foods to your life.

This is an intermediate fermentation recipe, not because it is difficult, but because understanding the basic process of fermenting a jar of regular sauerkraut will ensure that your experience making Goldenkraut is simple and worry-free. If you have mastered basic sauerkraut, Goldenkraut is a great next step!

Golden Sauerkraut

Print Recipe

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

No reviews

 With its sunny yellow-orange color and sparkling flavor, Golden Sauerkraut is a great way to add fermented vegetables and the proven benefits of turmeric to your life. Once you get in the habit of adding a forkful of fermented food to your plate at each meal, you will find it positively addictive!

• Author: Michele Pryse, FNTP
• Prep Time: 45 min
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 3-4 quarts
• Category: condiment
• Method: fermentation
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

1 medium head of green cabbage

2 rounded tablespoons (30-35 g) salt (Redmond, Himalayan, or Celtic)

2 golden beets

1 orange sweet potato

3 large carrots

1 parsnip

1 sour apple or firm, green pear

3 stalks celery

4 cloves garlic

2-inch knob of ginger

1 habanero pepper and/or, optional

2-inch piece of fresh turmeric, optional

3 grape leaves (or reserve outer cabbage leaves)

Supplies:

Food processor or box grater

Chef’s knife

Large cutting board

3 wide-mouth quart jars with lids, can be re-purposed

Extra-large, 7 quart, bowl

Wooden veggie tamper or wooden spoon

Moisture-proof tray or plate

Masking tape + Sharpie marker

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

1. Lay out all the ingredients and supplies listed and wash all the veggies. Prepare the veggies:

a.    Remove outer cabbage leaves and reserve. Cut head into quarters, remove core, and slice thinly with chef’s knife. Place in bowl, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon salt.

b.    If desired, peel beets and sweet potato. Using a food processor (FP) with large hole grating disk (or large holes of box grater), shred beets, sweet potato, carrots, parsnip, and apple in batches and transfer to bowl with the cabbage.

c.    Switch to FP slicing disk and thinly slice celery, or use a knife.

d.    Switch to S-blade, peel garlic and mince in the FP bowl with ginger, turmeric, and habanero pepper, if using. Add to cabbage mixture.

2. Sprinkle 1-2 tablespoons salt to taste over the vegetables. Massage veggies well with your hands to combine (wear gloves with habanero); let rest 15 minutes to draw juices from the vegetables.

 

3. Prepare your jars and lids by washing them in hot, soapy water and allowing them to air dry. Label the jars with masking tape including name of product, ingredients, start date, chill date (3 days), estimated finish date (2-3 weeks) and recipe source. You’ll thank me later

 

4. Once vegetables are wilted by about half in volume, begin packing them firmly in the jars using the wooden tamper, your fist and/or a clean wooden spoon. Leave 2-inches headspace at the top of the jars for expansion during fermentation.

 

5. The natural brine formed by the vegetables and salt should rise over the veggies as you pack them in. All veggies should be submerged. Top the vegetables with a clean grape leaf or cabbage leaf, tucking the edges down into the sides of the jar so that the liquid rises over the leaf. 

 

6. Add lids to jars without tightening them fully. Place jars on moisture-proof tray or plate and set in a 60-75°F (16-24 C) spot out of direct sunlight, but convenient enough for you to keep an eye on. I like to keep fermentation projects on my kitchen counter during the winter and in our home’s interior hallway during the summer to maintain even temperature.

 

7. “Burp” the jars every day by loosening the lid and then retightening to release pent up carbon dioxide.  As the kraut begins to ferment you will see tiny bubbles rise in the jars.  Some brine may spill over onto the tray, this is normal. After 3 days, move the Goldenkraut to the fridge and chill for 2-3 weeks before eating. When it’s done is up to you! Goldenkraut should be tangy, pleasantly sour and not overtly salty when done. It should taste good to you. If it tastes raw or sharp, let it mellow a few days longer in the fridge and taste again. Enjoy within 3-6 months. 

 

Yield: 3-4 quarts

To serve: Add a generous forkful (about 2 tablespoons) to your plate with each meal and enjoy the appetite-sharpening flavor and probiotic digestive benefits!

Notes

If possible, do yourself a favor and try to secure as many as you can organic vegetables for this ferment. I begin with about 6 pounds of veggies, but don’t worry about exact sizes and weights of ingredients, this is more of a template than a recipe.

 Shopping guide

There are great bargains to be had at thrift shops. If that does not work out, check out the curated links below. Some links are affiliate links and I earn a small commission when you make a qualifying purchase. This does not change your price. Thank you for supporting my business!

 Cuisinart food processor 

 Victorinox chef’s knife

 Flour sack towels 

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2

Week 29: July 23, 2022

We are marveling over the blueness of our un-smoky skies! Sam and I remind each other almost daily how nice it is to not have smoke from wildfires polluting our air! How nice it is to breathe clean mountain air in the summer! To see stars at night and the moon a pearl instead of a pumpkin.

Sam’s projects

Sam traded in his plans to go fishing for a day spent replacing the radiator in his new-to-us (bought in December) truck. Very grateful he caught it before it overheated and blew a head gasket or ruined the motor. Later he was spotted (through a screen) surreptitiously washing my car.

Garden and food

The garden inspires our meals this time of year and I am conscious of a sharp thrill of sufficiency when I go with my basket to pick whatever is ripe. Zucchini daily, raspberries sometimes!

Harvests this week included zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, eggs, Meyer lemons, Zloty Lan chamomile, Persian basil, and garlic.

One special meal we ravenously enjoyed was a veggie-forward version of Spätzle (also spelled spaetzle), and Cream and Lettuce Salad. I find myself especially grateful for my heritage of thrift, received from my German-from-Russia (Ukraine) mom and Norwegian dad. Though they were not first generation immigrants, they held onto old ways of making do, nowadays known as sustainability. As an added bonus, I can make 49 different meals from flour, potatoes, cabbage, onions, and milk.

Hotter weather has arrived and we prayerfully hope no intentional fires will be set. The gardens are at least partially mulched, chicks and bunnies are shaded and equipped with cooling devices, the sheep’s water tank is on a drip.

Zucchini Moons are our quintessential start-of-zucchini-season dish. Egg battered and fried in butter, Zucchini Moons are delicately delicious and satisfying.

The sight of scale insects on my cherished Meyer lemon tree galvanized me into action. With persistence and know-how it is possible to squelch these parasitic insects. I have already wiped each branch and leaf down with a cotton round soaked in witch hazel (rubbing alcohol works, too). Next: spray thoroughly with my homemade All-Purpose Disinfectant Cleaning Spray, wait an hour, then rinse with a hose. Tree must be positioned in the shade. Direct sunlight can damage vulnerable leaves.

Family goings on

We were blessed with a visit from Cameo this week. In 3 days we squeezed in a visit with grandparents, dinner out, a girls’ movie night, lake day with paddle boards, and grasshopper pie. So much fun spending time with adult kids.

New video

Let’s solve those fruit leather problems so that your fruit leather turns out gorgeously leathery and delicious every time.

A favorite kitchen tip

Applying “meal prepping” principles and strategy to bread means mixing up an extra large batch of bread dough by hand or using my Ankarsrum Assistent mixer and freezing it in loaf-size disks. As needed, thaw one piece of dough and bake a loaf of bread.

In the summer I do my best to avoid using the oven, but we need bread in the house, so if I am going to bake I try to make my oven multi-task. Here I am baking a small pumpkin saved over from the 2021 harvest in a pie dish along with a loaf of whole wheat bread.

Thrifty swaps

Four pints of homemade Maple Vanilla Syrup added to the pantry. It’s not “real” maple syrup, but is made of simple ingredients and saves us quite a bit of money with recent price increases.

In need of a new curling wand, I checked the stores and was shocked with the price! This particular wand is regularly priced $55. I paid $8.50 at Goodwill and it still felt like too much, for a used item. 

Long before the Pioneer Woman, there was Jane Watson Hopping, the Pioneer Lady. My all-time FAVORITE cookbook author, Jane retired to southern Oregon and I had the pleasure of meeting her in high school! The subtitle reads “A Celebration of Summer’s Bounty” and that is exactly what it is! Recipes use fresh produce from your garden or local farmstand; lots of simple meals perfect for hot weather, delicious fruit-centered desserts, and scrumptious baked goods. As with Jane’s other books, you will find quaint poetry and stories that will bring a smile to your lips.

Her books are out of print, but I would like to invite you to search for it at my favorite online seller of used books. I am sharing my ShareBookLove link with you. (If you make a qualifying purchase, we can each earn a free book!)

Wishing you a wonderful week, but also knowing some of you dear ones are struggling with anxiety and fear, serious health diagnoses, family problems, and financial difficulty. Please know you can message me anytime for prayer.

Blessings,

Michele

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2

Week 7: February 19, 2022

Cool, frosty mornings are right around freezing and afternoons in the mid 60’s F (18c). The birds are happy and fill the air with chatter. It is surprisingly loud. Anyone who says they, “crave the quiet of the countryside,” has never been there. Or here.

The skunks have returned. From where, we do not know. We enjoyed being skunk-free these last several months, but when we heard the cat food bowl hit the side of the house on Monday evening Sam and I knew that meant the reprieve had ended.

We haven’t been sprayed (badly) yet, just small puffs of nauseating stink that last only a couple of days so far, and that due to Sam who persists in chasing them off. Sometimes I think he is worse than Toby, our grumpy old Maine coon cat. “Get outta here, go on, get!” says he, gesturing with his arms.

Skunks retaliate by picking up the empty cat food dish and flinging it against the house. And spraying, of course. Then ever so leisurely slipping under the gate to seek vittles and hospitality elsewhere.

Which means re-washing whatever is in the dryer because the scent goes right up the dryer vent and permeates the wash. Gahhhh!!! But as I said it hasn’t been terrible – yet. That day is coming, I am sure, and wouldn’t you love to be here visiting when it does?

Maybe you’d rather play my apprentice as I go through the farm kitchen tasks of the week: cooking, gardening, fermenting, inventorying the pantry, adding herbs to the apothecary, as well as shooting a video and answering at least a few hundred questions on all of the above subjects in online venues! I wish you could, it would be nice to have the help and the company some days!

Simple pleasures: cozy, beautiful socks (handmade by a dear friend, Linda Chandler, in Kentucky who send them to me as a surprise. Thank you, Linda!) a cup of tea, and a homemade cookie.

Valentine’s Day lunch at Mom’s. We packed a basket with a big jar of German Vegetable Soup with Dill, Baked Rice (custard), and Red Velvet Chocolate Tea from Farmhouse Teas.

PNW-Style Bacon and Veggie Fried Rice with garden greens, carrots, leftover chicken, and eggs from our chickens. A great use of leftovers, cool-season garden veggies, and odds-n-ends in the fridge.

Preparing to shoot a Bosch bread making video for Homesteading Family. Carolyn Thomas’ Art of Homemade Bread masterclass teaches you everything your grandmother (or great grandmother) used to know about baking soft, fluffy, and sliceable homemade bread. This is a batch of 5 loaves of 100% whole wheat bread.

One good way to get to know a far-away place is through their food. Get to know Ukrainian food and you will fall in love with the people. My mom’s side of the family is German-from-Russian, which is actually Ukraine. Summer Kitchens is one of my most-cherished cookbooks, it brings me closer to my family roots.

Four bowls of splendid salad greens: buckwheat, sunflower, pea, and radish (from left to right). I find seeds in many places: bulk bins at the locally-owned grocery store, Sprout People, and Johnny’s Seeds. Seed racks at garden centers frequently offer a small selection of seeds expressly for sprouting and eating. (You would not want to use treated seeds for food.)

I’m guessing grumpy Maine coon (Toby) locked the beautiful damsel in the hutch? Your guess is as good as mine.

Musqueé de Provence seed pumpkin, identified by the macramé yard I tied on the stem after hand-pollinating the female flower last summer. A peek inside reveals rich persimmon-colored flesh wish sweet, melon-like aroma and a wealth of sturdy seeds to save and replant.

Early spring pantry check. Your pantry may be spread out in different places like mine is, between kitchen cupboards, baskets on the floor, a closet, under beds, perhaps a shed or garage, and don’t forget your freezer!

A basket of garlic with many options for preserving before it begins to sprout. This time I plan to turn some into garlic salt, roast and freeze some for savory soups, and ferment some as a paste to season marinades and dressings and add flavor to stir fries.

We have been eating from the winter squash heap all winter and still there are plenty. Some will be baked and pureed for future pies, creamy soups, muffins, and other baked goods. Varieties left here include: Waltham butternut squash, porcelain princess pumpkin, and Musuqee de Provence pumpkin.

We are using up the last gallon jar of water glassed (or limed) eggs preserved in lime water. I keep a pair of rubber gloves draped over the top for ease of grabbing eggs. You also see a gallon of coconut oil, a crock of sauerkraut (in back), a lone bottle of huckleberry kombucha, and several jars of fermented garden produce including tomatillos and tomatoes.

A peek in the chest freezer reveals whole stewing hens (also known as spent laying hens) for broth, a turkey purchased at a discount last Thanksgiving, and local beef and fish.

Five gallon buckets with Gamma Seal lids are a convenient way to store whole grains like wheat, rye, barley; beans, popcorn, salt, sugar, and more as the lids easily spin off and on with one hand. No more struggling with a bucket tool to open a lid. I keep quart and half-gallon jars of individual grains in my kitchen cupboard and refill from the buckets as needed. Since I get into the buckets regularly, we do not use oxygen absorber packets. We eat from our food storage and continually replenish it throughout the year.

Happy mail from Starwest Botanicals included astragalus root, licorice root for, more amble glass tincture bottles, and a new set of tiny stainless steel funnels for easy filling of tincture bottles. Three homemade additions to the apothecary this week included diced dried organic tangerine peels, diced dried ginger, and dried hawthorn berries from a local tree. Some of the ginger was made into a fizzy ferment to add spice to stir fries and peanut dipping sauce for summer rolls.

Family-friendly movie recommendation: Support Your Local Sheriff. James Garner stars in this classic Western comedy, aided and abetted by the late Jack Elam, a southern Oregon local. You might just laugh through the entire movie like we did!

Coming soon: a new roof for the greenhouse!

If you have a few more minutes to relax with your cup of tea, feel free to take a peek at last week’s Cottage Diary entry. Thanks for visiting!

Chocolate Box Cottage Diary Vol. 1
Week 33: August 21, 2021

It has been a unique week at Chocolate Box Cottage!

Shall we start with ducks? Yes, let’s. My friend, Sarah, gave me an amazing gift: four beautiful Silver and Chocolate Muscovies; one drake and three hens. Plus a little chick that thinks it’s a duck.

I named mama duck Opal and once she goes through a molt and her beautiful, pristine feathers come in, I think the name will suit her quite well.

Opal lost a clutch of eggs the night before they were due to hatch to a predator. She was so set on being a mother that she adopted a nest of chicken eggs and hatched them! This little one is the only surviving member of the hatch and they are devoted to each other. It is sweet to see the tiny chick trailing after the duck.

The fenced hen yard at Chocolate Box Cottage includes a marsh. Long willow branches trail into the water and wild blackberries and cattails encroach on the edges, blurring the distinction between slurpy mud and dry land. Pretty and pleasant in the sunshine; at night it is a different world. The place exudes a rich odor of muck.

The first two nights, the ducks dutifully trooped into the henhouse as dusk, waddling up the ramp through the narrow door to comfortable quarters shared with about a dozen chickens and five Indian runner ducks.

I have a habit of shining a flashlight in through the small bird door into the henhouse, just to check that everyone is inside, safe and sound. The third night, I saw Opal and her little chick, but the other Muscovies were missing.

I went back for taller boots. I returned with boots and husband, and we waded out into the marsh in the black of night made murkier by thick smoke from a wildfire miles away. We soon spotted the ducks, just out of reach in the marsh. If we could oh-so-quietly loop around them, the ducks would hop onto dry land where we could shepherd them into the henhouse.

So I picked my way through the marsh, using tree roots and a few exposed rocks as stepping stones. It was tough going and slow. And then willow branches grabbed my hair, throwing me off balance. I heard and felt a loud SLURRRRP as the mud sucked one of my boots off and the other filled with dank green water, startling an opossum, who obviously planned a duck dinner, perhaps with his sweetheart by the light of the moon.

Muscovies are silent birds, they do not quack like other ducks. There was an uproar of wings and a disappointed opossum scurried off, leaving fluffs of floating feathers in his wake. We were no closer to looping around the ducks, in fact, my acrobatics had pushed them further into deeper water. They were now inaccessible to us.

We did the only thing we could do. We gave up and we prayed.

“Lord, protect the ducks overnight. Send the opossum far away, please!”

And then we went back to the house, emptied our boots, and went to bed.

Thankfully, God protected the ducks overnight.

In the Garden ~

Meanwhile, the garden continues to prosper. Basil and raspberries were harvested. Eighteen quarter-pint jars of Basil & Parsley Pesto were deposited in the freezer. The raspberries were a wonderful treat, eaten immediately!

Garlic has been cured and cleaned and is ready to store. Tomatoes are trickling into the kitchen.

My good friend Lena operates a booth called The Prairie Girls at the Main Antique Mall in Medford, Oregon. (W4N and W4P if you’re in town). She kindly brought some handcrafted items by for me to shop through when she was changing out her inventory for the season. I kept the chair and lemon yellow bedspread in the right front corner. And the strawberry apron, which is darling!

This was hard to do! Painful, but Swedish ivy require occasional “haircuts” if they are to remain full and lush. I neglected to pinch it back as I should have, so it had become a little leggy. Don’t worry – I saved some good-looking stems to start a new plant.

Note: This post was hanging out in my ‘Drafts’ folder since August, somehow I forgot to press publish. So I’m publishing now, 5 months overdue.