What To Do With All This Cabbage?

We had a bumper crop of cabbage this year, and we need to do something with it quickly.  We've had cole slaw, egg rolls, cabbage and sausage jambalaya, and sautéed cabbage.  This morning, we decided to make Kimchi.  We used the recipe from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon of the Weston A. Price Foundation.  We gathered the ingredients:

The recipe we used is shown below.  I think if you click on the photo, it will enlarge.

We shredded up the cabbage, chopped the green onions, grated the carrots, the radishes, the ginger, and the garlic.  Then we added the pepper flakes, sea salt and whey to the big bowl.  Tricia had whey left over from when she made mozzarella cheese the other day.

Then, with a wooden masher tool, we took turns banging and pounding on the contents of the bowl.  What we're attempting is to crush everything and release all the juices,  After Tricia had enough, she gave me the pounder and I worked on it for a good while.

We used a canning funnel and spooned the contents into each jar, packing it all tight while pressing down.  The juices should cover the vegetable mixture completely.  We have some glass weights the sit on top, pushing it down and keeping the liquid covering everything.

Here's an up-close look at the kimchi.  It has a nice color and aroma to it.

We put lids on top, dating the kimchi and set on the counter.  We'll leave it there for three days at room temperature.  They we'll put it in the fridge and let it ferment and age.

After a few months, we'll pull it out of the fridge and give it a try.  We do a lot of lacto-fermenting.  In fact we've been eating on lacto-fermtented banana peppers that we did last year and have 2 1/2 quarts left. They are still holding up well and taste great, like hopefully the kimchi will turn out.

As We Near Drying Off the Cows - An Experiment

In four days we will be drying off the cows.  In dairy-speak that means we stop milking them.  You'll probably hear us talk about that a lot.  We've been milking for over two years straight without a break, and we are ready.  When we bring the milk inside, we pour it from our stainless steel pails into gallon-sized glass jars.

Those jars are immediately refrigerated and the cream rises to the top.  I remember being young and my teachers would always tell us, "Work hard, prepare yourself, for the cream always rises to the top."  That saying may sound strange to some, but it is a truism.  The cream is the best part of the milk.  It is the thickest, sweetest, best part.  After it rises, we take a big spoon and skim off the cream, putting it into a pint-sized jar.  We use that for our coffee, and for ice cream, and for whipped cream and butter.

But soon, we'll have no more fresh milk for a while.  For how long?  We don't know.  We haven't had the cows palpated yet to see how far along in their pregnancies they are.  We were talking about what we were going to do.  Sometimes, in the past when the cows were dried off, we wouldn't even buy milk.  We would only buy cream. 

Tricia reminded me that my Mom had given us a neat thing that was from Bumby, my grandma.  It was some little glass jars to freeze sweet cream in.  See the photo below?:  Freezer Creamer - Always have cream for unexpected guests.  Thaws while your coffee brews.  Slips into your ice cube tray.

There are six little jars with lids on a tray.  I couldn't find a date on these, but I think it is a neat family heirloom.  We are going to see if we can successfully freeze some cream using Bumby's antique sweet cream jars.  (One is missing because I'm about to fill it.)

I simply filled the jar with sweet cream from Clarabelle's milk from earlier in the morning.  It doesn't get fresher than this!

I placed the little cap on top of the jar...

And I placed it in the freezer.

I pulled the little jar out a bit later to find that the cream had completely frozen. 

I think our experiment was successful, but the proof will be in the pudding.  We'll thaw out and drink in our coffee this weekend.  If it is good, we'll make more, and we'll ration the remaining sweet cream for special coffee time!  I hope it works.  The last time we dried off the cows, we tried to freeze some milk.  I was not impressed.  Once it thawed, it had a different texture and consistency.  I was not a fan.  Perhaps this will be different.