Water the plants with water that has been run through the cow barn so there is lots of good fresh cow manure contained.

        When the little cabbages start to form, fire up the wood burning stove and burn lots of scrub oak to make lots of ashes. Take the cooled ashes and sprinkle this onto the cabbage plants. This kills the larva, hatched from the eggs of the white butterfly, commonly called the cabbage butterfly, that flits around the gardens each spring and summer.

        When the cabbages are big enough that they start to split, take a big butcher knife and sever them from the stocks. To raise good big cabbages, the cow manure is essential

        After cabbages have been harvested, take one wooden barrel, scrub it clean and set it in a shady place, (under an apple tree will be fine.) Then send one of your 10 kids to the neighbor to fetch and borrow the cabbage shredder. For some reason all farmers and gardeners don't have one of their own. The reason for this is probably to make the neighbor feel that he is a part of the sauerkraut making process.

        After a big tub of cabbages have been washed and checked for worms, put the cabbage on the shredder, one at a time, and slide it back and forth, over the sharp cutting edge, (like on a wood Planer). It takes lots of time and muscle to shred enough cabbage to fill a 50 gallon barrel!

        The next step is to send someone to town for a 100 lbs of rock salt. Now the time has come to find several small boys and girls, scrub their feet to a shine and after putting a layer of about a foot of cabbage and a sprinkle of rock salt into the barrel, place a kid, one at a time, into the barrel, down in the dark and tell him or her to start running around in circles until the juice comes up over the layer of cabbage. Juice must rise above each layer, before another layer of cabbage and salt is added.

        If the kid yells, from the barrel, "Mom I gotta go," remove him quickly and replace him or her with another scrubbed-up kid. The kid will need a rest, anyway, because after a half hour his or her feet will be all white and shriveled looking. Remember that these kids have been running around all spring and summer without shoes and their feet probably have many chapped places from being in and out of so much water. So pay attention to his cries of pain and take pity on him by removing him for a while.

        After the barrel is plum full, there should be juice of cabbage and salt standing on the top of the cabbage. Please don't add any water, just have the kids resume their tromping until the process is completed to your satisfaction. To keep the cabbage under the liquid you then go in search of a huge rock. Find a clear stream of water, preferably a stream that is un-contaminated. Scrub the rock up until it shines, cover the cabbage with a clean cloth, (a flour sack will be fine) and place the lid of the barrel on top.

        Get help, if needed to lift the hugs clean rock up onto the lid. The rock should be very heavy for if any cabbage floats above the liquid it will turn brown and rot.

        In a week or two, a month is better, the cabbage will ferment and then it's called sauerkraut! This mixture will keep all winter, in a cool cellar and is best cooked with pork spare ribs. Simmer on the back burner, preferably on a wood burning stove. And my, the delicious aroma of this wonderful sauerkraut will bring the kids running, when the call goes out, "COME AND GET IT!"

        Some people prefer to eat sauerkraut with freshly grown, good farm potatoes, but that is another story, of how to raise good farm potatoes. Happy eating!!