Cabbage is one of my favorite vegetables. We start the seeds indoors in early spring, move them to the green house for a while after they get a few inches tall and then finally plant them in the garden. After planting we blanket them in row cover to protect them from cabbage worms.
We first learned about covering cabbage from Blind Pig reader Ed Ammons. There’s a little extra work getting the hoops and cover set up, but it protects the cabbage so well that it’s worth it.
With all the wet weather we had this year we faced a different pestilence.
Rolly-polly bugs, snails, and slugs feasted on the outer leaves of all our cabbage. They looked terrible! I was afraid we wouldn’t have much of a crop this year.
The day we pulled up the cover I was about afraid to look, but was pleasantly surprised. Those terrible outer leaves were hiding some really good cabbage heads.
One of our favorite ways to preserve cabbage is to make kraut. For the last couple of years we’ve made kraut like Granny does in the jar.
Granny sterilizes her jars and adds one teaspoon of sugar in each. Then she packs each with chopped cabbage. Granny doesn’t pack the cabbage too tight, cause she says it needs room to work off.
Once the cabbage is in the jar, she adds two teaspoons of salt, fills the jar with cold water, and adds the lid and ring. She tightens the lid pretty good instead of leaving it partially open like other fermenting recipes instruct.
Granny sits the jars out on the porch while the kraut is making. As the kraut makes it sometimes seeps out the top of the jar. It doesn’t make such a mess out on the porch.
Granny says it takes a least two or three weeks for the kraut to make, but she likes to leave hers on the porch till cold weather when she carries it to the basement.
One time I asked her “Does a jar ever explode?” Granny said “Why Lord no it may run out some but it won’t explode.” Granny is a worrier, so after a few minutes she said “Well if it ever did explode it wouldn’t hurt nothing outside no way.”
It really doesn’t matter if you put the sugar or salt in first or if you put it all in at once, that’s just the method Granny uses. I’ve found for me it’s easier to keep straight if I put the salt in the jar first then the sugar on top of the cabbage. Might be I’m just trying to be different than Granny 🙂
A few years back I found a recipe for canned coleslaw on this site. We liked it so much that every year since I’ve been making more than the previous year.
Most often we eat the slaw straight out of the jar, but I’ve also drained it and added a little mayonnaise. We like it that way too.
Eaten straight out of the jar the coleslaw has a sweet pickle taste that goes well as a side for most any supper. We love slaw on our hotdogs and canned coleslaw straight from the jar works well for that too.
The first year I made it I was curious to see if the cabbage stayed crisp. It does. Even after sitting on the shelf for several months the cabbage still has a real crunch to it.
You can watch me can coleslaw here.
Last night’s video: Christmas in the Month of July.
Tipper
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Hello, I’m the owner and creator for Nelson Road Garden. I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your YouTube video and this post about my canned coleslaw recipe! I sure do appreciate the traffic and credit that you have sent my way. I love hearing that you and so many others love the recipe. Love your content! Thanks again, Abby.
My wife and I had a garden of some sort for the last 60 years and canned and/or froze a lot for Winter use. This year with so many days devoted to Dr visits the only thing we’ve done is make some jam and jelly with some blackberries I picked. I had two appointments yesterday in different cities and she had one. I have three scheduled for Thursday. We do have a few tomato plants in pots but the green horn worms seem to be getting more than we do from them.
Tipper, I just got a chance to see your Christmas in July videos. They were so fun. I think your star rolling pin would make the prettiest top pie crust ever!
So interesting. Love Granny’s take on things. Wonderful lady
Have you ever thought, Tipper, that BP&A will be (and already is) a “go to” place for people wanting to practice old-fashioned “home economics” (remember that, you all?) I think in this, and many other similar things, there is divine provision at work. Scripture speaks of “a way of escape” being made and even though that verse is specific to temptation, the grace is not limited to only that need. I would even say there are a great many such provisions that have been made across a great variety of needs. I am finding that it is becoming ever more common for people to search for “how to” about common household problems and ideas about things they want to do. Others may think it is just happenstance, but not me.
Thank you for the wonderful demonstration and recipe referral for canned coleslaw. One of our local apple orchards has a bin full of beautiful huge locally grown cabbages. My sister and I are going to be canning coleslaw this week! Our mother never canned it, but she always made it with vinegar and sugar. We never cared for the creamy type dressing, so this is perfect and to be able to can it is a win!!
Hearing that Granny is still canning and doing what she loves is such an encouragement to keep on keeping on! I’m 78 and have had to move up from a small garden to a few large raised beds on legs which makes it waist high and perfect for me. I’ve been able to get enough bush beans to can several quarts every summer just from those raised beds. Last year squash bugs ruined all the beans and squash so this year all I planted was more marigolds and nastursums, and a few rows of carrots and lettuce in early March. I always cover the lettuce with row covers which provides extra shade. The carrots were an experiment and did so-so, but the lettuce finally gave up last week after giving abundantly. I am hoping the squash bugs moved on with nothing to eat this summer. What all have you used this year to deter squash bugs other than cinnamon sticks, pepper spray, and smashing them?
Cheryl, we try everything if only all of it would work lol!
It’s 82º outside and 81º in here. I’m at 98.6º, sittin here with a cup of 149º coffee and as happy as a bug in a rug. It’s supposed to get to 92º today. That’s nowhere near my body temperature so the air is still cooling me. The “Feels Like” temperature means nothing to me. I feel like what I feel like and that can’t be predicted by a calculation.
Every summer here is either hot and wet or hot and dry. I expect one or the other every year and my expectations are always met. I guess I adapt well.
Ed, you write this, it may be intended for me. Right now it is 98 degrees with a heat index of 106 degrees, at 9 o’clock this morning it was already 90 degrees. I bet if you get out of your 80 degree home and try working outside in these temperatures you will soon pay attention to them! Yes, it is suppose to be hot this time of year, but you can ask the older people that have lived here all of their lives and they will all tell you the weather has changed, it gets and stays hotter and drier longer than it did in the past. Usually you could count on getting at least one good thunderstorm each week. We have had less than 1 inch of rain since the middle of June. The few thunderstorms around here have missed us. We are paying the preacher but it has not helped, maybe we need a different preacher!
Randy, no it wasn’t for you in particular, it was for anyone who wanted to read it. I was trying to say that people are spoiled by air conditioning.
I’ll be 75 in October. I have severe back problems (I have a hunch back), I have neuropathy that causes me to have a constant burning in my feet and legs. I have gout all over my body (I take three kinds of medicine to control that). I take medicine for my heart, my blood pressure and my lungs. The last time I went to the doctor my blood pressure was low and heart rate was 39.
Your wife died and so did mine. You had a funeral for your wife and so did I, but I didn’t go. I couldn’t. It was too far away. You can go visit your wife’s grave whenever you want. I can’t. It’s too far away. I’ve never been and won’t ever be able until they take my body and lay it in the ground beside her.
My wife’s family and some of my own couldn’t understand. They thought I could have gone but they didn’t know the shape I am in. They didn’t know and didn’t bother to ask. It ain’t like I should have gotten a doctors note to prove I am sick. But my daughter and son knew and understood. They are pretty much all I have now. They care about me, they care for me, and they love me. That’s all I need!
I didn’t want to disclose all my medical issues in my first comment but now I have. I try not to burden other people with my problems. Jesus tells me to yoke myself with Him and He will share my burdens. Imagine that, me and Jesus are a team. Possibly the weakest man on the planet yoked with the creator of everything. Jesus not only helps me bear physical afflictions but also helps me keep my mental ones in line too. I’ve quit crying, I’ve quit worrying about things I have no control over. I know somebody who controls everything. I have no fear of death for I will sleep, up the on that mountain, beside between my wife and my sister and near my father, mother and brother, until Jesus comes to draw us up to Him clad in our new incorruptible bodies.
Randy, I did get out today. I try to get outside every day. It was 93 when I went out at 2:00 and stayed out until 5:30. I put on a cap and took off my shirt. I don’t know how hot it got but I handled it fine. I sat in a chair and pulled weeds from around my father-in-laws rose bush and then tried to clean out a flower bed my wife had built long ago with white gravel in it as a mulch. I told her she’d be sorry but you know how wives are. I sat in my chair and pulled crabgrass and clover. I put them in a galvanized 12 quart water bucket and when it got full I carried it to the compost pile. That’s the way I work when I can. Just a little bit at a time. You’ll probably laugh at what I get done sitting down but it’s better than being imprisoned in a nursing home somewhere and sitting in the hall staring at the wall.
So, no it wasn’t intended only for you but I guess it is now. I don’t think anybody else reads my comments any more anyway and I can’t say I blame them.
Amen, Ed. I read your comments as well as most of those of others. I did some volunteer work with a fellow years ago in sweltering humid heat. When people around us complained he would say, “That’s the way I like it.” We also worked all day in the cold – 6 degrees when we went out that AM and 14 degrees when we quit. I heard him say the same thing probably ten times that day. “That’s the way I like it.” I was near death a couple of years ago and the doctor asked how I felt about that possibility. I said, “I’m ready to party. You fix it and I’ll continue to party with family and friends. If you can’t I’ll party with Jesus.”
Mr. Ammons,
I loved your initial comment. I thought it was funny and to the point. An attitude most needed in our day and time. I read and was annoyed by the comment from the person trying to put you in your place and was surprised to see your reply to him / her, loved that reply also.
Keep on keeping on , as it seems, you do so beautifully with Jesus. God bless you.
Yvette (in Canada)
Mom canned more kraut than anything else out of her garden. She used the wooden kitchen table as a cutting board and chopped a mountain of cabbage with a butcher knife. Since soup beans and taters were served daily for supper, that’s what we ate the kraut with. We never had hot dogs growing up, so I never developed a taste for them eaten together.
You’ve got to put out cabbage before you can put up cabbage. I didn’t, therefore I can’t. Hopefully next spring!
Tipper and other members just read an email from Hoss Tool company. Another new use for cabbage, at least for me, put a clear cabbage leaf on the top of each jar of canned items such as green beans to keep the contents down in the brine.
I do love good slaw on a hotdog and always with fried fish. You’ve inspired me to try granny’s kraut recipe. It sounds delicious and simple enough that even I could make it.
I watched your “canning coleslaw” video again and want to make a batch. It looks easy enough, but I would have to buy some equipment like the jars, lids, and other items that I got rid of when I stopped canning. I used to can years ago when the children were growing up but with just me and my husband and our age now, plus the varmints eating everything, it’s almost impossible to have a garden. I’ve been thinking of buying some cabbage and just make a few jars. I also have watched your sauerkraut videos and would like to make some of that too. We had another thunderstorm and a little rain yesterday afternoon. It has rained almost every day for quite a while now. I wish we could give Randy some of it. I enjoyed your “Christmas in July” video yesterday. The toddlers are growing and beautiful. You are so blessed. I continue to keep you, your family, and Granny in my prayers.
So happy you had a good cabbage harvest. That canned Cole slaw sounds delicious.
I am happy for you that your cabbage harvest is a good one. Our garden did not do well this year. Oh well, some years are just like that. I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of your day. This morning, here in WV, is cooler than usual. It won’t be later on, but this morning is a good time to go out and get some work done.
Tipper, your motto should be “work smarter-not harder!” The kraut or slaw idea in the jars is the way to go! That granny is simply a genius! I’ve planted cabbage but they’re not looking too good. It’s taken me til this year to get squash and cucumbers grown right, so I keep hope in learning about the garden. Experience and patience pay off in the garden. Here’s wishing everybody a nice day and a “cold” front soon! Blessings to all!
We would grow cabbage but I don’t remember ever trying to “put any up.” For many years during the fall, my wife and I would go up to the Hendersonville, Chimney Rock, Lake Lure area of NC and buy some apples, cabbage and a quart jar of sourwood honey. Doing this was mandatory. I would always buy several heads of mountain cabbage to give to some of my neighbors. I wrote before about the Chimney Rock, Bat Cave, Lake Lure area being special, when we married (Oct. 26, 1974) we did not have money for a honeymoon, we spent most the next day after our wedding in this area just walking around and looking (not buying) in the gift shops. My wife loved doing this, I didn’t, I would tell her if you have been in one you have been in all of them. Now I would give anything to have her back and be able to do this again. I would let her look till her heart’s content.
Tipper, you write about the rain and the problems it has caused in your area, here it has been the hot, dry weather causing problems, we have broke the high temperature for some days and will also break the record for the longest continuous days over 90 degrees. The record had been 38 days, most of this week will be the same, before a forecasted cold front next weekend with temperatures in the low 80’s, I may have to build a fire! The very large corn fields, grass yards and gardens have all burnt up not only from the lack of rain and but the heat. I saw a field of soybeans and another of sunflowers over the weekend that were not much more than hand high.
We love that canned slaw recipe and it’s now a favorite. My brother especially loves it! I’m thankful you shared it with us. It looks so perdy in the jars too!
I hear a cool down is coming. I will be so grateful as I know y’all will be too! I hear thunder again this morning. It sure has been challenging to keep the weeds out of the garden.
Have a blessed day everyone!