A report from Farmer Rob on recent sauerkraut making activities:

Cabbage is shredded and packed in quart jars with one tablespoon of salt per jar.  Other optional ingredients like carrots and juniper berries can be added, too.  The cabbage is bruised to release liquid by pounding and pressing with a wooden pestle.  

The jars are covered with lids, but not too tightly, so that the carbon dioxide gas given off by the lactobacillus bacteria can escape.  After a few days to a week of vigorous fermentation, the lids can be tightened. It is best that the jars be kept in a tub or other container that does not react with salt during this phase, as some brine will escape.

The salt and exclusion of air provide an an environment that favors the lactobacillus bacteria.  The bacteria consume sugar and give off lactic acid which pickles the cabbage.  

Lactic acid fermentation is very trendy, and very traditional.  Sauerkraut has long been recognized as a winter source of vitamin C, and more recently is getting recognition for being a probiotic, providing organisms that are beneficial to our guts.

Sauerkraut is German for "sour cabbage".  During WWI, sauerkraut was dubbed "Liberty Cabbage", and during WWII, "Victory Cabbage" when Germany and things German were not in favor.

After a good bit of waiting around for them to ripen, the oats were harvested yesterday with the farm's combine. Farmer Jeremy said he was impressed with the quality of the oats, though the quantity was slightly below what he expected.

If the weather stays cool next week (cool, at least by August standards), the farmers might start plowing the recently harvested oat field with the draft horses. This would be an earlier start to fall plowing than usual.

As Farmer Ian remarked at the farmer's meeting this morning, "We might even have fit horses by the plowing match."

The farm is abuzz with activity today as we set up for the Mercer County 4H Fair. Hope to see you there:

Saturday, Aug. 2, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 3, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Parking and admission is free. Suggested donation of a canned good to support Rutgers Against Hunger.

The Howell Farm interns received some ox cart driving lessons this morning from Farmer Rob. The task: dumping brush and then moving firewood around the farm in preparation for fueling a steam engine at this weekend's 4H Fair.

A recipe for the wineberry shrub Farmer Rob made last week. Just substitute the wineberries for the raspberries:

http://www.grouprecipes.com/46665/colonial-raspberry-shrub-drink.html

If you look in the other direction off Howell Farm's bridge, you can still see pools of water holding on against the summer. But in this direction Dry Run Creek now lives up to its name.

At the weekly farmer's meeting, Farmer Ian reported that he spotted the first huge fly of the year harassing an ox, the kind of fly that bites hard and seems to track the draft animals wherever they go. Around the farm, these flies are known as "bombers."

While small flies can be a nuisance to the draft horses, the bombers can cause dangerous agitation. That's why during the summer the horses are outfitted in fly nets and are sprayed with Skin So Soft.

The interns have been harvesting wineberries, an invasive plant somewhat similar to raspberries and blackberries, that is now fruiting.

Farmer Rob is using some of them to make a wineberry, vinegar and sugar drink that is sweet and sour. The Furrow will report back soon on how it tastes.

The majority of the oats are now golden but some are still green, which means they're still not ready to harvest. Next week?

The results from June are in. According to the office of the New Jersey State Climatologist, June 2014 was a little warm, it ranked as the 29th warmest since 1895, and a little dry, the 47th driest since 1895.

The state climatologist notes:

"More than a few people may be inclined to think the month was cooler than average. This might be due to the absence of an extended hot spell, the thermometer remaining below 90° over most of the northern third of the state, or a continued reaction to the earlier cold start of 2014."