For most people, it’s hard to draw any comparisons to eating sauerkraut right out of the crock. That’s because making homemade sauerkraut is one of the things from the past that not may people do anymore.

You can’t count my septuagenarian friend, Darrel Koehler in that group. Darrel has been making sauerkraut for years, something he learned from his parents while growing up in New York Mills, Minn.

Darrel and I worked together for years at the Grand Forks Herald and shared many a garden during that time, growing cabbage for sauerkraut. While Darrel has scaled back his gardening a bit  in recent years, he still has had time to make sauerkraut, with me providing most of the cabbage and he the preparation.

This year, however, I joined him, grating the cabbage for the kraut while he layered it in two 5-gallon buckets. (Darrel abandoned using his old Red Wing crocks a few years ago after discovering cracks in them.)

Just this past week, Darrel let me know this year’s kraut was ready, which meant I had to pull together what was needed for canning it — rings, lids, jars, canner, etc.

My share of the kraut amounted to about 17 quarts, which I processed Thursday while the wind was howling and the snow was blowing outside. And not before eating a few handfuls of kraut right out of the pail.

Wunderbar!

Sauerkraut, Sausage and Potatoes
½ cup butter
1 medium onion, diced
2 garlic cloves minced (four if you are a garlic lover)
½ teaspoon thyme leaves
Ground black pepper to taste
3 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced
1 quart sauerkraut
1 pound sausage, cut into ½-inch pieces
Put the cold butter in a cold pan with the diced onion, and slowly bring to a simmer on medium heat. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Add minced garlic and simmer 2 more minutes. Add thyme and pepper.
Combine with the sauerkraut (undrained and not rinsed), sausage and potatoes. Bring to a simmer on the stove top. Cover loosely with foil and place in a preheated 225-degree oven for 3 hours.