Cabbage - "Visions of Sauerkraut"

This is an impressive marketplace for cabbage!  It was taken in 1901 in Germany and titled "Visons of Sauerkraut".

Mode of preparing Sauer-Kraut.—The Germans consider the cabbage a more economical plant than even the potato; but in its natural state it could not form, as it does in Germany, a principal article of diet amongst the healthiest and stoutest part of the population, and it therefore undergoes a peculiar preparation, after which it is called "sauerkraut." Cabbage thus prepared in the Gorman fashion has been recently introduced in the dietary of the British navy, and occasionally it may be seen at table in England, in the houses of private individuals. The following recipe for making sauer-kraut is from a work entitled ' Germany and the Germans,' written by a gentleman long resident in that part of the Continent:—" When the cabbage has arrived at maturity, or even beyond it, that is, when white and very hard (for the crops are left in the ground till late in autumn), the outer leaves are first peeled off, the cabbage is then divided, and the stalk entirely cut away. It is now placed in a machine, which sets in motion several sharp blades, that cut it much in the same manner as we do pickled cabbage, but finer. This process being completed, the whole is closely packed in barrels, and between each layer of cabbage is placed a sprinkling of salt, carraway seeds, and juniper berries. When the barrels are full, they are closely covered, and pressed by heavy weights. In three weeks or a month it is fit for use, and will keep good for years. Care must be taken, when any part of it is removed, that the remainder is left covered with its own brine. During the season for preparing the sauer-kraut, thousands of persons in Germany are employed in cutting the cabbage. It requires four hours to boil, and is usually served with salt meat. The Bavarian method is, after it has been boiled, to mix with it butter and red wine."

1839 - The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Volume 8

The following is from A History of the Vegetable Kingdom: Embracing Comprehensive Descriptions of the Plants Most Interesting from Their Uses to Man and the Lower Animals; Their Application in the Arts, Manufactures, Medicine, and Domestic Economy; and from Their Beauty Or Peculiarities; Together with the Physiology, Geographical Distribution, and Classification of Plants,  1874

Sauerkraut, "that excellent preparation" of the Germans, and of which they are so immoderately fond, is merely fermented cabbage. To prepare this, close-headed white cabbages are cut in shreds, and placed in a four-inch layer in a cask; this is strewed with salt, unground pepper, and a small quantity of salad oil: a man with clean wooden shoes then gets into the cask, and treads the whole together till it is well mixed and compact. Another layer is then added, which is again trod down, and so on until the cask is entirely filled. The whole is then subjected to heavy pressure, and allowed to ferment; when the fermentation has subsided, the barrels in which it is prepared are closed up, and it is preserved for use.

 The preparing of sauerkraut is considered of so much importance as to form a separate profession, which is principally engrossed by the Tyrolese. The operation of shredding the cabbage is now performed by a machine, which the men carry on their backs from house to house; this means for the abridgment of labour was only invented about forty or fifty years ago.

 Every German family stores up, according to its size, one or more large casks of this vegetable preparation. October and November are the busy months for the work, and huge white pyramids of cabbage are seen crowding the markets; while in every court and yard into which an accidental peep is obtained, all is bustle and activity in the concocting of this national food, and the baskets piled with shredded cabbage resemble "mountains of green-tinged froth or syllabub."

Sauerkraut has been found of sovereign efficacy as a preservative from scurvy during long voyages. It was for many years used in our navy for this purpose, until displaced by lemon juice, which is equally a specific, while it is not so bulky an article for store.

The larger and grosser kinds of cabbage are used as food for cattle. But this nutriment has a great tendency to impart a disagreeable flavour to the milk of cows fed on it, and even to the flesh of other cattle. This unpleasant effect may, we are told, be prevented by removing the withered leaves; but cabbage is more disposed to fermentation and putrefaction than almost any other vegetable. 

When cultivated as food for stock, it is of course a matter of importance with agriculturists to produce the greatest weight in a given space. The average crop, as stated by Mr Arthur Young, is thirty-six tons per acre, when the plants are grown on a dry soil, which is very similar to that quoted from other and more modern writers; but on a sandy soil only eighteen tons have been obtained.

 Some cabbages are occasionally produced of an astonishing size and weight. A cabbage seed accidentally sown among onions came up in the onion bed, and without any care being taken of it, grew to very large dimensions, and weighed, when taken up, twenty-five pounds. A cabbage was also produced in Devonshire, a number of years back, which, when growing, occupied a space of fifteen feet of ground, measured five feet in circumference, and weighed sixty pounds.