Wrenshall News: Cabbage is king this year

This was a surprisingly difficult growing season for a lot of our crops on the Food Farm. It was dry early in the growing season, then the first real rain we got was full of hail. This fall has started off dry as well, exacerbated by a failed irrigation pump. But one vegetable that has done exceeding well is something of a historic one to the area — cabbage.

The cabbage and potato farms of Wrenshall used to be the main suppliers for Duluth and Superior and beyond. Boxcars were loaded with the cruciferous vegetable and sent across the country. They store well in root cellars and could be a source of food throughout the winter.

James Sheetz’s grandfather grew cabbage on the grounds of what is now The Scott House, and he and his siblings remember roaming the fields. His father, Don Sheetz, spent the morning of May 4, 1946, planting cabbage and the afternoon at the courthouse getting married to the love of his life, Doris.

I’ve had to think creatively about what to do with the abundance of green and red heads. There are the endless variations on coleslaw, and since we grew daikon radish again this year I’ve ventured into some experiments in sauerkraut and kimchi. I have yet to undertake cabbage rolls.

In addition to cabbage cooking, and despite a season of setbacks, I have still been able to put up a fairly respectable shelf of tomatoes and beans. I used my dehydrator for leeks, cherry tomatoes, and peppers. I’ve never been too adventurous with preserving recipes, and the fanciest I’ve ever gotten is green tomato pickles that my dad’s mom used to make in Baltimore.

Seeing the canning supplies sold out at L&M made me think that lots of folks are putting up their garden’s bounty for the year ahead. One of my favorite books when I was a teenager was Ray Bradbury’s “Dandelion Wine.” He writes of walking into the basement in the middle of winter and looking at the rows of shelves with summer’s preserves:

“And there, row upon row, with the soft gleam of flowers opened at morning, with the light of this June sun glowing through a faint skin of dust, would stand the dandelion wine. Peer through it at the wintry day — the snow melted to grass, the trees were reinhabitated with bird, leaf, and blossoms like a continent of butterflies breathing on the wind. And peering through, color sky from iron to blue.

Hold summer in your hand, pour summer in a glass, a tiny glass of course, the smallest tingling sip for children; change the season in your veins by raising glass to lip and tilting summer in.”

I don’t know if Bradbury could wax as poetic about the humble cabbage, but I would like to imagine what it would sound like. Let me know your cabbage cooking tips and I can share them through this column. Or tell me the craziest thing you’ve ever preserved, along with the recipe, and we can look forward to opening the crisp taste of September afternoons come mid-February.

If you have any Wrenshall-related news to share, email or call Annie Dugan at [email protected] or 218-310-4703