Cabbage House Hill (Big Tancook Island) Traditional Cache
Tancook Island Girl: Archiving this cache so I can have room to place some that I have been excited to place for over a year now. The island is only so big and I want to make them all fun and different! I hope everyone enjoys these new ones!
Cabbage House Hill (Big Tancook Island)
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(regular)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Opposite side of the road you will see the foundation of an old Cabbage house. That area used to be known as "Cabbage House Hill"
Sauerkraut -
For at least 200 years islanders have planted cabbage for making sauerkraut.
The cabbage is planted in early spring from home produced seed.
The kind of cabbage that is selected to dry for seed is very important. Some say it is a cabbage that has 2 leaves covering the outer head instead of four. In the fall the cabbage is picked and shredded. It is then packed into barrels with course salt. The sauerkraut must age in the barrels for a couple of weeks. A large rock is used to push the mixture down. As the cabbage ages, the volume of the juice rises and falls in the barrel.
According to legend the volume of the juice from the barrel rises and falls with the changing tides. At high tide the brine sometimes overflows. At low tide the brine level drops in the barrel. The cabbage brine (juice) is also known as broth or pickle. In the past, most families grew cabbage and made a barrel of kraut for their own use. Some islanders sold sauerkraut on the mainland. All the work was carried out in special cabbage buildings. In the 1800s and early 1900s the cabbage was stomped by using bare feet before it was put into the barrels.
The art of sauerkraut is slowly dying out on Tancook. A few islanders are working hard to keep the tradition alive. It is getting harder now to make due to the large amount of deer on the island. It is very hard to keep them from eating the cabbage. Some have to buy cabbage from the mainland.
Cabbage houses were used for storing the cabbage in during the winter.
Congrats to blackrattle on the FTF!
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures