DIY -- cabbage savings

I keep telling you that you'll save money if you go DIY so here's the bottom line.
I spent $1.00 on a 2 pound cabbage.
I salt-pressed 2/3 of it into sauerkraut.
I brined the other third for kimchi overnight, then added garlic, ginger, onions and cayenne.
It took me about 20 minutes to slice it all up and salt the future sauerkraut and put the future kimchi in brine.
The sauerkraut cures for a week under plastic wrap and a heavy weight.
The kimchi cures in a jar in the fridge for  a couple of nights.

I got 1.25 pounds of sauerkraut for $0.65; the store charges $1.40 for 1 pound.
I got 10 ounces of kimchi  for $0.35; the store charges $6 for 14 ounces.

The cost of the kosher salt and ginger and ground cayenne isn't worth talking about.
I used yellow onions, not scallions, because scallions are over $1 a bunch.
The kimchi can live in your fridge and you can freeze the sauerkraut.
Doing this once every couple of months only saves you $20 a year.    But you can do it more often if you have a big family and you get all the fiber in the vegetables plus a lot of flavor.

Just one tip.  I always soak my sauerkraut before cooking to get out some of the salt.  Then I always cook it a long time.
You can also use that other 1/3 cabbage in soup, or in coleslaw, but it won't make galuptsis because for that you need the dark green outside leaves of the cabbage and those you only get if the store doesn't trim the cabbage a lot.  Which they usually do because nowadays they know the customer would think those extra leaves are waste, instead of seeing them as an opportunity.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved