August 30, 2002

Plains Folk: Cutting Kraut

Tom Isern, Professor of History
North Dakota State University

The first trees came from the Sheyenne River bottom, dug up and replanted here by Jacob Wieland. Now row upon row encloses the stucco St. Mary's Catholic Church, near Sibley, and shades its annual Corpus Christi procession. It is a striking effect to drive in from the sunflower fields of golden autumn, enter the sheltered church grounds, and then descend to the church basement.

Which is what I did on a late August Saturday, coming to share, by the kind invitation of Peggy Wieland, in the annual cabbage cutting day at St. Mary's. It is a ritual that precedes by about one month the St. Mary's Fall Supper, which features turkey and kraut. I attended the supper last year, and it was great. You never tasted better kraut.

It begins here and now with 350 pounds of cabbage and an experienced crew of church volunteers. It used to be just about all women, I hear, but now it's men and women and girls and boys.

Five sit at the serving counter and begin the processing of cabbage heads--removing outer leaves (saving some of them for a purpose to come)and quartering. The quarters pass to the kitchen island counter and thence into the hands of four individuals operating old-fashioned wooden kraut cutters, generally bought at farm sales.

The big bowls of shredded cabbage go next to Peggy, who does the salting. Again and again she fills a 2-quart measure with cabbage, then adds a spoonful of salt. Alternate measures go into each of two large rubber trash containers. Bent over each are two persons punching away at the cabbage to get the juice flowing.  Now and then they dip the excess juice, looking like pale sea-foam, into a bucket, so that the cabbage will compact properly.

This goes on for a couple of hours, until the cabbage is all in the cans.

Then, while some visit and have coffee and rolls, others finish the process by sealing the containers. The juice is poured back in.  The clean outer leaves are laid on top; there is going to be some spoilage, and these leaves will be no loss.

Then comes the stroke of folk genius. Double garbage bags are placed atop the cabbage leaves and filled, slowly, with a water hose. They expand to cover the tops of the cans and to seal them completely.

The kraut cans are left undisturbed in the church basement until the day before the fall supper, about a month later. The method never fails--perfect kraut every time. The fall supper comes on a Sunday (Oct.6 this year). Saturday is the day the volunteers show up to cook the kraut. They fry onions in lard, add the kraut to the big pots, and thicken with flour and water. Finally, they add chucks of pork, roasted separately.

This is impressive. And yet it is only one current manifestation of a rich cultural life in this parish, formed by Schwabian German immigrants in the 1890s. They built their frame church in 1904 and this marvelous stucco church in 1929. They have celebrated Corpus Christi since 1906. Early celebrations featured a male choir and a brass band performing such original compositions as John Wieland's "St. Mary's Parade March." Here in the basement, Joe Berger tells me, "We used to put on three-act plays." John Amann organized these and directed.

So often we think of pioneer life as a matter of deprivation and loneliness. This just doesn't match up with the record of such places as St. Mary's. Pioneer life here had a complex calendar and a vital culture. Cabbage day and the fall supper echo that vitality.

Just imagine the day when Bishop Shanley came to dedicate the church. As told in the county history, "All the men of the parish went to meet the Bishop at the train at Dazey, some on horseback, some with buggies." Can we recapture even a remnant of their exhilaration and camaraderie? Come on in, let's try.

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Source: Tom Isern, (701) 799-2941, tom@plainsfolk.com 
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu 

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