How Government Schools Destroy Self-Reliance

by Todd Walker

I taught a kid one year that would get upset and start smashing his head against the institutional green walls. I was once guilty of this as well, figuratively. Banging your head against government walls will only give you a head ache and doesn’t even chip the paint. Schools in America are wildly successful in their mission. Before you stop reading, hear me out please. I base my statement on the founding principles of public (government) education. The truth, which slumbering Americans fail to realize, is that our system of forced schooling fosters dependence on the state. The confusion is intentional. Victims students are disoriented from their pre-schooled lives on their first day of schooling. Little Johnny is forced to give up interest led learning and replace it with the corrupting concept that learning only takes place by experts teaching him and 30 of his fellow captives. Some resist and hold true to their nature. We label and drug these non-conformists.

An Act of War

In 1983 the National Commission on Excellence in Education wrote:

“If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves.”

Reforming the system is impossible. It performs perfectly. The circling school drain sucks self-reliance and individualism down the sewer line.

Here’s how…

Tag and Track

There is no expectation of privacy in a surveillance state school. A Texas school district tracks its students every movement with microchips. Security cameras already blanket every move of students and faculty in the school house. Why track the herd with RFID chips? Follow the money. Attendance is tied to federal and state dollars to fatten the district coffers. Now government snoops can know whether your child is home playing hooky, boarding the bus, sitting on the toilet, or at that doctor’s appointment. Sadly, so can any pedophile or tech-savvy predator with a RFID reader. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. All in the name of keeping our children safe and secure.

At least they’re not implanting them … yet. Wouldn’t it be easier to just implant this device under Johnny’s skin? Don’t think for a minute that the-powers-that-be (collectivist control freaks) haven’t already contemplated it. Wearily similar to laboratory animals or livestock, students are conditioned for compliance. Made to be useful, but to whom?

The herd is conditioned to wear straightjackets built to restrict individuals for the good of the group. What if your son or granddaughter isn’t interested in algebra? Doesn’t matter. The collective knows what’s best for your children…and will force feed it to them – in 50 minute segments – on hard seats – while telling them how much they’ll need this in later life. If they’ve been taught the basics of how to read, write, and multiply, they can figure out how to cross that algebra bridge if they ever have to in real life. It’s not that difficult. The State just makes it look hard so only licensed teachers are qualified to dispense knowledge. This is only one dirty little secret in the educrat’s toolbox of lies. You have no choice but to play alone.

With a little digging you’ll also discover these myths promoted as fact…

• Passing a grade level equals education
• Life is supposed to be fair
• Learning can only takes place with State licensed teachers (arrogant monopoly)
• A diploma equals competence
• The government is here to help you
• Schools perform unconstitutional search and seizures to keep your children ‘safe’ (simple conditioning exercises for the real world)
• The pharmaceutical industry wants you healthy (mercury flu vaccines anyone?)
• Eating from the USDA Food Pyramid makes you strong, healthy, and fit
• You’re considered drug free in school if you’re popping ‘approved’ mood altering pills
• Reality TV and professional wrestling are real…and Elvis is alive!
• Individualism marks you as mentally ill
• The individual must be sacrificed for the good of the collective
• Thought I’d throw this one in for free since it’s election time… You vote matters

Resistance is futile. One contumacious student is feeling the Texas heat. “Andrea Hernandez, a sophomore at John Jay, said educators have ignored her pleas to respect her privacy and told her she cannot participate in school elections if she refuses to comply with the tracking program. Hernandez said in an interview with Salon that subjecting herself to constant monitoring through an RFID chip is like being branded with the ‘mark of the beast.'”

Shut up and take the mark! Quit criticizing our scheme. This is the fate of any individual in the collective’s grip.

Collective Sameness vs. Self-Reliant Individuals

Over two million families have made a logical choice to de-school their children. A few families are reading the handwriting on the institutional wall of forced educational tyranny. Our ancestors forged this country without compulsory pubic education. Somewhere on our amazing journey Americans gave our responsibility of educating our offspring to the statist gulags.

Taking responsibility for one’s learning or life is deemed irresponsible. I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve heard fellow teachers, with scowled faces and rolled eyes, disparage parents who yank their students from the grip of institutional schooling to teach at home. At best, they’ll become a greeter at Wally world or ride on the back of a trash truck is the usual tone of their comments. On the other hand, I’ve also heard a few enlightened coworkers declare that their children will never attend public school. They’ve experienced the mind-numbing, creativity-killing, one-size-fits-all school setting first hand.

I work along side with some the best teachers around. I see the hard work, extra hours, and dedication in their attempts to educate. Many burn out and either leave teaching or just go through the motions to preserve some semblance of sanity. Like so many in our society, most teachers have mistakenly assumed it’s our job to educate children. The system isn’t set up to educate. It’s set up to take individuals through a meat grinder to produce homogenized humans useful to the ruling elites. As Nikita Khrushchev said,

“Comrades! We must abolish the cult of the individual decisively, once and for all.”

Mr. Khrushchev, along with every other totalitarian dictator, placed a high value on indoctrinating young minds to create the cult of compliance.

That’s why individualism and self-reliance must be crushed for the collective to thrive. Resistance is futile!

Zero Tolerance Zone

Nanny state schools give us a glimpse into the mind of our elite rulers. Ideas are dangerous. Act on this ‘silly’ ideas of self-defense, self-ownership, healthy living, free speech, and liberty and the boot of tyranny soon stomps on your neck. Schools are no weapon zones (AKA – Victim Zones). School administrators across America must be told to never use common sense by TPTB (The Powers That Be). How else could one explain the enforcement of Zero Tolerance rules?

• A Tennessee elementary school boy was punished for waving a gun at his lunch table. No, not a real gun, wait for it…a deadly pizza gun! Administrators can’t have boys being boys. They’ve got to be melted and poured into the compliant mold. For his crime, he spent the next five days eating alone at the silent lunch table. If he chews another piece of dough into the shape of a gun and starts brandishing the pizza, he’ll get suspended. Whee, I know the parents and fellow students feel safe now!
• When did lunchroom ladies turn into the Food Gestapo? Recently, a 7th grader in California, wishing to eat something other than GMO laden lunches, brought a bottle of tea to drink with his home prepared lunch. One of the brown-shirts spotted it and alerted her superiors. They descended on the child and confiscated the contraband. The FDA label stated that the kombucha contains .5% alcohol and this violates the school Drug and Alcohol Policy. WHAT!? My fermenting homemade sauerkraut probably contains more alcohol than this stuff. Even the FDA says that it’s not an alcoholic beverage and is easily purchased by minors. Ignorance knows no bounds!
• Middle schoolers arrested for protesting dress code.
• Dropped cake leads to broken wrist and arrest of high school student and mother.

If a multitude is to be subjected to a plan, it must be militarized. If individuals are allowed a free choice, the plan is thrown into confusion. Bureaucracy, under an absolute ruler, or rulers, is necessary. – Dean Inge

The schooling scheme designed by intellectual elitist shapes individuals to be dependent on powerful others for all their wants and needs. Showing up to school is all that’s needed. With enough time and pressure, even the most self-reliant student is molded into passive objects.

Public schooling is so good, we’ve made it mandatory. Now, get on that yellow bus and be a good student (a useful consumer of collectivism).

What’s the solution? I don’t fool myself into thinking I have a solution for millions of individuals and their own self-interests. Don’t let politicians and bureaucrats fool you either. Families should do their own research, think for themselves, and come up with their own method of educating their children – and preparing for the uncertain future. Ask what’s best for you, the individual. Do you want your children to have critical thinking skills, voluntary associations, creativity, self-reliance, and self-ownership? These and much more are available to you if you search.

Class dismissed!

Keep Doing the Stuff of Self-Reliance,

Todd

P.S. – You can also keep up with the Stuff we’re Doing on Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook… and over at the Doing the Stuff Network.

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Are You Packing? 5 Inexpensive Ways to Store Your Food

Author: Tess Pennington
Source: Ready Nutrition
June 2012

You can spend a fortune on food for long term storage, but if you don’t protect your investment, that money could be completely wasted.  Proper storage containers don’t have to cost a fortune.  You can glean many different kinds of containers from things that would normally be thrown away.  Once you’ve alerted friends and family that you are seeking these containers, you will likely be given more containers than you could ever use!

Food must be protected from three specific “enemies”:  oxygen, moisture and pests. Proper containers are like an insurance policy on your food.  Careful storage practices combined with the right containers are (Hint: Before repackaging your dried foods for storage, send the item to the deep freezer for a couple of weeks to kill off any mealy bugs or pests that could be lurking in the product.) Choose your storage location carefully, because even the best storage practices can be hampered or derailed completely by rodents , extreme temperatures or excessive moisture.

Soda Pop Bottles

One of my favorite methods of storing dry foods is in leftover soda pop bottles, because the containers are a freebie!  Our family doesn’t drink much of it, but we do get the occasional club soda.  Other folks drink lots of it, though, and are usually happy to pass their empty bottles on to us, especially in our city, where we pay for garbage disposal.  This method is not for extremely long term storage but will keep food fresh and pest-free for 2-3 years.  Date your bottles and rotate them out of your storage pantry into your kitchen within a reasonable amount of time.  Rodents will chew right through plastic, so this method is only to be used when you are reasonably certain that mice cannot access the storage area.

When opting for this method, look on the bottom of the bottle for the code.  You want to find the word “PETE” or “PET”.  This is the recycling symbol and it indicates that the bottle in your hand is at the lowest risk of breakdown that will cause toxins from the plastic to leach into your food.

We use these bottles for water storage and dried food storage.  I’ve used them for sugar, salt, beans, rice and flour with absolute success.

For food storage, wash your bottles and be sure that they are thoroughly dry.  If they have moisture in them, your food will be ruined.  Use a funnel to pour in your dried foods.  If you feel the food requires it, you can fold up a desiccant packet and shove it into the bottle as well.  I’ve used them for sugar, salt, beans, rice and flour with absolute success.

Other Plastic Containers

As mentioned above, the recycling code “PETE” or “PET” means that a container is one of the most food-safe and unlikely to pose a health risk, assuming it is not exposed to high heat.

Other plastic containers that I have washed and reused for storage have included coffee jars, peanut butter jars, juice jugs, ice cream tubs, pretzel jars, dog treats and protein powder canisters.

Plastic containers that do not close tightly are not recommended for anything other than very short-term storage.  Things like margarine tubs, yogurt or sour cream containers or plastic dip containers are better used for leftovers.  Never microwave your food in plastic.

Glass jars

Lots of store-bought food comes neatly packaged in glass jars.  While these lids cannot reliably be resealed for canning using a hot water method, they do close tightly and work well for dried food storage.

I’ve redeemed glass jars from pasta sauce, instant coffee, salsa, jelly, honey garlic sauce, mayonnaise and other condiments, nuts, olives, relish and pickles.  I reuse these jars in my kitchen like canisters.  I soak them to remove the labels, and then wash them in the dishwasher.  After making sure they are thoroughly dry, I fill them with things like dried fruit, nuts, cereal, oats, flour, coffee, sugar tea bags, beans, rice, barley, pasta and quinoa. I have them stored in an old china cabinet for day-to-day use and it gives my food storage a nice old-fashioned country look.

The larger glass containers are in the basement storing zip lock bags full of legumes and rice.  Like the plastic containers above – this method is not meant for 10 year food storage but it works well for a couple of years.  Glass has the benefit of being rodent-proof, as I have yet to meet a mouse who could chew through it to get to the goodies inside!  I was recently lucky enough to find extra large canning jars at a yard sale, and they have also been pressed into duty in this manner, since I found them too large to realistically use for actual canning.

#10 cans

I know, I said these ideas were all freebies.  But I can’t leave out #10 cans as a reusable storage source.  Some of them, like coffee cans, come with a plastic lid that can be used once the can is opened.  For those which do not, replacement lids can be purchased online for 25 cents each.   I find that a very reasonable price for adapting something that would otherwise be thrown away.

I often reuse these cans for the original purpose of coffee when I buy it in bulk in short term packaging. They are also good containers for sugar, flour, or powdered milk.  When you are using a plastic lid, keep in mind that these containers will not be rodent-proof.

Food-grade Buckets

If you’re very lucky, you can acquire food grade buckets for free.  If you have friends in the restaurant industry, you may have more food grade buckets than you can handle.  The industry uses large 3-6 gallon plastic pails for everything from bakery supplies to condiments.  If you are sort of lucky, you may be able to buy these for a small fee that is still only a fraction of the price you’d pay to purchase unused buckets from an online source or an LDS cannery.

These buckets can be used in many ways.  The most long lasting way to store food in the buckets is by using the following process: fill Mylar bags with your food item, heat sealing the bags, and place them in the bucked with an oxygen absorber or desiccant.  Many foods will last almost indefinitely when packaged in this manner.

If you have not yet purchased Mylar bags and sealing units, you can use standard zip lock freezer bags, remove as much of the air as possible, and place them in the bucket, putting the lid on tightly.  This method will only keep your food fresh for a year or two, so keep that in mind when packing them, and rotate this food into use more frequently.  Also, if you are not using Mylar, be sure that the bucket has not retained the smell of the former contents or that smell will be absorbed by your food.  Garlic scented milk powder is unlikely to be a hit when reconstituted and used with breakfast cereal.

Before purchasing an expensive storage system or bulk containers, look for the freebies from above.  Also be sure to check out different outlets for your supplies: local thrift stores, yard sales, and online sites like Freecycle and Craigslist.  Every penny you save on storage is a penny you can spend on food!

Author: Tess Pennington
Web Site: http://www.ReadyNutrition.com/
Date: June 28th, 2012

Foxfire: Spotlighting My Glaring Shortcomings In Self-reliance

Remember the “how long does it take to reach the center of a Tootsie pop” commercial? A new spin on that old one is, “How long does it take to become self-reliant?” I’d say a life time after our visit to Foxfire last week.

For any unfamiliar with Foxfire, their website explains,

“‘foxfire’ is the name that an English class picked, in 1966, for a student-produced magazine they chose to create, containing stories and interviews gathered from elders in their rural Southern Appalachian community.

Most importantly, ‘Foxfire’ is the living connection between the high school students in the magazine program and their heritage, built through interaction with their elders. Students, by their own choices, have worked for over 45 years to document and preserve the stories, crafts, trades, and the personalities of their families, neighbors, and friends. By doing so, they have preserved this unique American culture for generations to come.”

I considered myself okay at self-reliance. I mean, it’s pretty easy with all our modern conveniences of today. My push-button lifestyle has seduced me into thinking I’m more prepared than I am. If my homemade soap sucks, I’ll just crank the combustion engine in my car and drive down to the super market and pick up some commercially manufactured soap. What if my solar oven experiment fails? No worries. I’ll just throw the chili on the stove top and turn a knob. Dinner is served.

My point? Don’t be lulled into the belief that you have more skills than you really possess. Don’t get discouraged either. Keep learning, practicing, and adding sustainable skills. One step at a time. One relationship and network at a time.

Becoming an un-consumer

Experiment now while it’s easy. Be a scientist. Ask lots of questions. Try new things. Follow your passion. Self-reliance and preparedness is a lifestyle worth pursuing. My goal is to be a un-consumer. Yep, that’s a new word.

My roots are in the Southern Appalachian culture on my dad’s side and Texan from my mom’s side. I came from good stock. An awakening is happening in my mind, spirit, soul, and body. The more I learn, the more I need to learn. Enough already. Here’s some food for thought and pictures from our visit.

The Tour

The self-guided tour of 19 stops on a 1/4 mile trail features structures, tools, and artifacts of Foxfire Museum. It’s a time machine taking you back to early American life in Appalachia.

The Savannah House – built in the 1820s

1) The Savannah House was built by Irish immigrants and is the oldest authentic structure at Foxfire. This cabin was home to a four generations of descendants. Three of these each had 10 children in a home measuring 21 x 21 feet. Older children slept in the loft. They must have been stacked like cord wood at bedtime.

The centerpiece of the home

Most of the cooking was done on the hearth.

Hog scalder

This hog scalder would have been used to boil water in preparation for scalding the pig before butchering. The boiling water made light work of the scrapping process to remove hair from the hog. A huge convenience for early pioneers. When I grew up, we used a metal 55 gallon drum cut in half over a fire pit. The scalder above had an opening in the front to insert fire wood under the large metal pot of water. The chimney in the rear draws the smoke out of the area.

It could also multitask as a soap-maker, heating laundry water, or a cook pot for large gatherings…which was likely with family size back then.

2) The second stop is only open with guided tours. The Museum Cabin (post 1850s era) has a true upstairs and rooms divided by interior walls. Looking through the windows we could see woodworking tools like planes, saws, and shaving horses. I’m disappointed that we couldn’t get in to see the moonshine still in the other room of the house.

3) The Wagon Shed. This is used to house two wagons. Originally built as a cabin for staff, it measures 16 x 18 feet. The Zuraw Wagon, pictured below is the only documented wagon to have traveled to Oklahoma in the Trail of Tears. It was built completely by hand in the late 1700s. Green B. Daves used this wagon to relocate to Georgia in the 1830s. It’s still operable today. They don’t make them like they use to. Mrs. Retta Pickelsimer Zuraw, a descendant of Daves, donated the wagon to Foxfire in 1975.

The Zuraw Wagon

4) The Blacksmith Shop. This is a place communities depended on for tools to do their work. I’ve been toying with smithing for a while now. This skill would be very barter-able in a post SHTF scenario. Tools, horse shoes, nails, hardware, home furnishings, bladed tools, and even guns are just a few of the necessary items produced in a smithy.

Stone forge and other blacksmith tools

5) The Ingram Mule Barn. This was used to house animals and hay. Below is a picture of one of the feed troughs.

Hand hewed feed trough in the mule barn

6) The Chapel. This chapel was constructed on site using salvaged lumber from a barn. The church was the center of Appalachian community. It was usually the first building constructed. It had multiple uses as well – church, schoolhouse, and community meeting hall. There was a replica of an old wooden coffin in the corner. My wife snapped a photo of me laying in it (Pic not included).

Inside the chapel

7) Root Cellar. This one is of traditional design but mostly above ground. Most were built completely below ground to take advantage of the cooler and consistent temperatures of the earth.

Root cellar

8) The Bell Gristmill. This mill was constructed by C. B. Bell in the late 1920s and relocated to Foxfire in 1972. The “overshot” water wheel was used in mountain terrain to take advantage of gravity and water flow to achieve twice the efficiency of “undershot” wheels that depended on the speed of water currents.

Millers were highly respected at their craft. “Keep your nose to the grindstone.” This expression came from milling grains. To tell if the grain was getting too hot during the milling process, a miller would keep his nose close to the grindstone to check for excessive heat that could ruin a batch of ground grains.

The water wheel on the gristmill

9) Broom making in the Gott Cabin. This 12 x 12 foot cabin was built in 1985 by cabin builder Peter Gott with help of Foxfire high school students using traditional tools and methods of the Appalachian region. Half-dovetail notches were used to join logs to help prevent water seepage in seams and prolong the life of the structure. The cabin chinking (material in the gaps of the logs) was made of red Georgia clay and modern cement. Horse hair or straw would have been used in period construction.

Broom maker

Guess the tool

That’s right. The above pictured tool is a broom maker’s hammer. I’d never seen one before. It’s used like a hammer to cut material in broom making.

10) The Bungalow. The last stop on our tour housed many items that were used in the early days of Appalachia. Below is a round, screened cabinet used to hang cured meats. I thought it was a great idea. It kept bugs and other critters out of the food storage.

Smoked meat case

As I said earlier, there were 19 sites to visit. I only included 10. The rest you’ll have to see for yourself. It’s well worth the visit and $6 fee to step back in time and take in a bit of history. For more info on The Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center, you can contact the helpful folks at Foxfire:

Phone: (706) 746-5828

www.foxfire.org

foxfire@foxfire.org

Location: Mountain City, GA

Top 10 Survival Downloads You Should Have

Kudos to Activist Post for this link! They’ve got lots of survival/preparedness articles to check out.

Unless you have redundancy in producing electricity, enabling you to charge iPads, iPhones, and other electronic reader devices, I highly recommend printing hard copies of all survival related material. I organize mine in 3-ring binders by category. Just a thought.

Source: Activist Post

Date: December 30, 2010

Modern Survival Online

There are tons of good downloads in the Survival Database Download section of this website. For this article – I have selected 10 that everyone should have either printed and put away, or placed on a USB drive – or better yet both.

So – let’s get to it:

#10. FM 4-25-11 First Aid (2002) – Military First Aid Manual.  First aid information is a must – get training before you need it – use this manual for reference.

#9.  Guide to Canning – Being able to preserve crops to  be able to provide for yourself and your family long after the growing season is over is important. This guide will help with that.

#8. Rangers Handbook (2006) – Crammed with info on demolitions, booby traps, communications, patrolling, tactical movement, battle drills, combat intelligence and much more

 #7. Where There is No Dentist – The author uses straightforward language and careful instructions to explain how to: examine patients; diagnose common dental problems; make and use dental equipment; use local anesthetics; place fillings; and remove teeth.

#6. NATO Emergency War Surgery – While this is certainly not a manual that would stand alone in most persons emergency/disaster library, it is an absolutely necessary resource if you expect to handle any type of trauma where immediate comprehensive medical care is not available.

#5. A Guide to Raised Bed Gardening – This is not an “all knowing” gardening book – however it provides a lot of information to the “urban gardener” before or after TSHTF.  Best to get the experience and knowledge of gardening NOW rather than later.

#4. FM 3-06 Combined Arms Operations in Urban Terrain – Combat techniques covered in the manual which may be very valuable in a “Roadwarrior”-type world.

#3. 1881 Household Cyclopedia  – A massive resource of information that much of it has been lost over the past 203 generations. From Angling to Knitting – its here.

#2. FM 21-76-1 Survival-Evasion-Recovery (1999) – Excellent manual geared towards the soldier that finds himself behind enemy lines

#1. FM 21-76 US Army Survival Manual – From Amazon.com:  This manual has been written to help you acquire survival skills. It tells you how to travel, find water and food, shelter yourself from the weather and care for yourself if you become sick or injured. This information is first treated generally and then applied specifically to such special areas as the Arctic, the desert, the jungle and the ocean.1970 Military Issue Manual. General Introduction and Individual and Group Survival Orientation Navigation, Finding Water In All Parts of The Globe. How To Obtain Food, Start a Fire and much more!

Get Your Gut In Shape: Down and Dirty Sauerkraut

by Todd Walker

I always wipe down the shopping cart handle with the handy sanitizing wipes at the grocery store. I’m doing my part in the war on germs being waged in our society. Anti-bacterial soap, anti-bacterial hand sanitizer are only the tip of our modern microorganism warhead. Pasteurized and irradiated food is a relatively new practice. Sterile is good, right?

Fermented foods have sustained humans for thousands of years. When it comes to our gut flora, exposure to bacteria is a good thing. Fermented foods offer the sterile gut a healthy dose of probiotics to help balance our intestinal flora. In a prolonged emergency, the skill of fermentation will become very useful – even life saving. When the lights go out, a lot of sub 40 degree food will go to waste.

My sauerkraut will last for years if it had to. Around my house, it doesn’t stand a chance lasting a year. If you hate bland, over-processed store-bought kraut, this stuff will make your taste buds and gut flora smile!

Here’s a healthy alternative for storing the abundance of produce from this years growing season…

Make Your Own Down and Dirty Sauerkraut

A.) Gather the Stuff

In this batch, I used one head of white cabbage, one head of red, and about 9 carrots, and some sea salt. You’ll need 2 or 3 wide mouth quart jars with lids. Always use glass to store the kraut to prevent acidic reactions with metal material. I used stainless steel pans to mix the kraut, but only leave it in long enough to mix it. You should really use non-reactive containers in the whole process.

 

B.) Shred the Stuff

Shred the cabbage or other vegetables you want to add to your kraut. I use a food processor for a down and dirty (quick) method. Some folks like to slice it with a knife to get the desired length on the kraut. If you’re fortunate, you own a cabbage cutter.

C.) Spread the Stuff

Spread a layer (about an inch or so) into big container. Sprinkle some sea salt over the layer. How much? I don’t know. I don’t make stuff with exact recipes. You may also like to add a tablespoon of caraway seed. I’ve never tried it, but have heard it’s good. Keep adding layers of cabbage and salt until all the veggies are in the container.

Food processor with some red cabbage below.

D.) Squeeze the Stuff

I put all the shredded future kraut into a larger container. You should let the mixture set for about an hour (some recommend 24 hours – but who’s counting) to let the salt begin drawing the moisture out of the veggies. I didn’t wait since I used stainless steel this time. I just started squeezing the juice out. You’ll notice the brine starting to pool at the bottom of your container. Keep squeezing. Some folks call it messaging. I brutalized my kraut for about 20-30 minutes.

E.) Pack the Stuff

Once there’s a fair amount of brine in the bottom of your container, start filling the quart jars. I try to leave about an inch of head space. As you fill the jar, you’ll want to use a utensil to pack the kraut layer by layer. I used a big wooden spoon. The micro lovelies like it packed tight for better fermentation.

F.) Brine the Stuff

Once filled, make sure the veggies are covered completely with brine. I’ve seen people use a piece of cabbage to cover the kraut with a weight of some kind. I didn’t use that method. I just made sure I had enough brine to cover. Use any left in the big container to pour over the jar contents. If you don’t have enough brine, dissolve a little sea salt in distilled water as your brine. Pour enough to cover.

Cap the jars with lids and screw the rings down loosely so gas can escape. Sit containers on a counter out of direct sunlight. Check the jars every day or so to make sure the brine is still covering the kraut. You may have to press the kraut down on each check up to ensure it stays submerged.

G.) Label the Stuff

Label the lid with the date of processing. Put it away and let nature do the rest. I let this batch sit for about a week. I just opened a jar and enjoyed its goodness.

I just found 4 crocks at a yard sale this morning. I paid seven bucks for the whole lot. I plan on using the largest on my next batch of sauerkraut.

Do you make your own sauerkraut? Share your tips and recipe in the comments.

Keep Doing the Stuff of Self-Reliance,

Todd

P.S. – You can also keep up with the Stuff we’re Doing on Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook… and over at the Doing the Stuff Network.

P.P.S – If you find value in our blog, Dirt Road Girl and I would appreciate your vote on Top Prepper Sites! You can vote daily by clicking here or on the image below. Check out all the other value-adding sites while you’re there… 

Thanks for Sharing the Stuff!

Copyright: Content on this site (unless the work of a third-party) may be shared freely in digital form, in part or whole, for non-commercial use with a link back to this site crediting the author. All links in articles must remain intact as originally posted in order to be republished. If you are interested a third-party article, please contact the author directly for republishing information.