Sauerkraut Has Finished!

    Yesterday was an exciting day.  The sauerkraut we had started back in July has finally been jarred, and we were able to taste the incredible-ness that is fresh sauerkraut. 

    Now, to put my amazement into perspective, I thought sauerkraut from a can you buy at the store was incredible.  I would have to refrain from buying it because I'd end up putting it on everything -- i.e. hot dogs, bratwursts, sandwiches, corn flakes, et cetera.  However, now I don't think I'll ever want to buy canned sauerkraut from the store again.  It would only make me cry that it wasn't home-made with every bite.  I can't exactly put my finger on why the fresh kraut is so much better, it just is.

 The canning process.

 Mmmmmmmm...

Martha at work!

    For all you sauerkraut lovers out there, try and make it up for some reubens, or brats, or some corn flakes smothered in kraut with us!

Sauerkraut

We've made our own sauerkraut! Martha seasoned up a huge amount of cabbage with the appropriate ingredients used to make sauerkraut and I got the pleasure of mixing it all together in a large clay pot.







After the cabbage mixture has all been blended together, it goes into the basement to ferment and become incredible! We made this mixture back in July and it has been marinating ever since. We are getting ready to can the kraut very soon! Stay tuned for a post about the finished product!

You Have to Start Somewhere

Cair Paravel Enterprises is not a new idea, years ago (I'm sure I'll be told the exact date later) we operated selling chicken eggs...and other products? I honestly cannot remember, being the little tyke that I was, however I remember milking goats, shearing sheep, eating lamb and chicken from the farm, picking and canning, canning CANNING.

Here we are again.

Right now our production is limited to what we can spare, which is mostly eggs. The layers are contributing about 1.5 dozen a day, with a miscellany of yoke and shell issues. (Yesterday mom made pasta with a double-yolk egg and one of the hens laid a membrane-wrapped egg white. No shell. No yolk.) Eventually we hope to have fresh produce not only for ourselves* but for those interested in sustainable, organic (abet uncertified), oft-heirloom and above all DELICIOUS offerings-of-the-garden. I'm still trying to convince The Managers (ne Parents) to get milk goats or a heritage breed of cow for milk and meat. Dad (or Whitt, or Chef Ledford) will have some beautiful woodwork to offer after the summer work season, and hopefully will be able to offer some cooking classes in the near future. The sisters plan to eventually sell their products: artwork, clever crafts, and essential tools of life....


But for now, we're eggs and apartment rentals. For the record, the chickens incontrovertibly came first here.

- Lil

*78 quart jars of whole Romas have been canned
I forget how many jars of sauce, sauerkraut, dillybeans
endless bags of green beans are in the freezer, nestling with peaches
Heirloom tomatoes are being dried and frozen, apples too
We have enough pesto to float a pasta battleship.