By Kellie Pettyjohn

Let’s say you’ve got a 4×4 board, a big bucket and a bunch of cabbage on your hands.  Whatta ya do?  Make sauerkraut!  On a cold day in January, a few Neighborhood Farm Initiative volunteers spent the afternoon making short “how-to” video clips on making sauerkraut and freezing peaches.  The clips are the first of a series of videos which will give folks tips and tricks for taking full advantage of your garden’s bounty.

Sauerkraut connoisseur Neil Zimmerman walked through the steps of a traditional method for making sauerkraut using salt as a pickling agent.   His simple, age-old recipe highlighted the power of nature to ferment and preserve cabbage and other vegetables to last through the winter months.

The other video we shot that day focused on another way of making fruit or vegetables last past harvest season – freezing!  Using sugar, lemon juice and a freezing container, the basic steps of freezing fruit were explained with fresh peaches as models.

The videos are a part of NFI’s collaboration with the burgeoning Field to Fork Network, an internet-based resource center for DC gardeners.  Once edited, the videos will be posted on Field to Fork’s website for all to see!

Meanwhile, check out some more photos of the film-making here!

Editor’s note: We’d also love to post your how-to videos in our resources section of this site – if you’ve made a video that is gardening or cooking related you’d like us to link to, please email us at DCFieldtoFork@gmail.com