How to Get A Head

       More Letters From Paradise
          How to Get a Head
When I am faced with "Writer"s Block," as I am now, I often return to the time when I was growing vegetables for market. I understand that a writer should write about things they know. I know about cabbages, hence this essay about this most hardy vegetable.

As with all life, cabbage begins with a seed. The seed is grown in green houses and when reaching proper size, is removed to outdoor cold frames, to become  used to the colder outside temperatures. These cold frames are boxes which have glass or plastic covers which can be kept open in the day, then closed at night.
When the plants are about three or four inches high, they are then ready to be transplanted to fields where they will remain until harvested.

The young plants arrive in small bunches, and are placed aboard a transplanter. My  machine would plant two rows at one time.Larger machines are able to plant many more rows.
The machine consists of two wheels which are fed plants from four open boxes, two for each wheel. Next to each wheel are seats, one on each side of the wheel. So on my two row planter four people were required,two people to feed  each wheel. I found that young people who weighed less, and were quicker with their hands, made fewer misses when feeding the rotating wheel. It worked really well when there were two left-handed  kids paired with two right-handed kids.

The operation worked as follows: The persons on the planter had their backs to the tractor  pulling the machine. As the tractor moved slowly along, the wheels would turn exposing a narrow metal tray with rubber gripping finders. The people seated in front of open boxes piled high with plants, would grab a plant and quickly place it in the tray as the wheel continued to rotate downwards. The plant now held by the rubber fingers would be carried down to an open furrow in the soil, where it would be made firm by the wheel and set free in its new home. The wheel continued upwards where the now empty trays would receive a new plant.  The operation continues down the field with two rows of plants evenly spaced, string out behind the tractor and transplanter. Sometimes a person on the machine fails to fill a tray with a plant, which shows as a gap in the rows of plants. Laughter comes when someone places the plant in the tray the wrong way, which then displays a plant in the field showing its root to the sky. It is a grand sight to see a field now set with plants all in neat rows. I should note that some transplanters even give a shot of water or fertilizer to each plant as it arrives from the turning  wheel. To my mind there is nothing finer than to stand in a field of cabbages with the rain drumming on their broad leaves.

Most cabbages are of course round. But there is one variety called "Dutch Flat Head." And there are red cabbages too. Cabbages are very hardy. Years ago farmers used to pull cabbages from the field after a light frost, and store them in grave-size pits filled with straw. Then anytime during winter when cabbage was called for, they would be taken up, trimmed, and you would have a cabbage as fresh as when one was first cut in the field.

Two more things about this vegetable. When shredded into a crock or some daily large container, and sprinkled with salt in layers, the result is sauerkraut. So simple, and so good. It's funny but nothing else is needed except some salt. The salt draws juice from the cabbage, and soon you have a wet mass. Place a plate with a heavy weight on top to keep the cabbage under the juice.  I used a big rock, but a water filled jar works as well. Stir the cabbage once in a while. You will now have a strong smell. You will know when it looks like kraut. It then can be canned, or given away to friends. One other thing should be mentioned, the recipe "Stuffed Cabbage or "Pigs in a Blanket." Here in Hawaii we often see Korean "Kim Chee," being offered in restaurants. All I know about it is that it uses fermented cabbage.  So the next time you buy a cabbage, take time to reflect how it came to be in your hand.

        Aloha
        Grant