Fermenting a New Approach to Sauerkraut
As a young girl, Kathryn Lukas remembers her Irish grandfather serving her hot dogs piled high with sauerkraut, just the way he liked it. And each time, she would push the shreds of pungent, fermented cabbage off to the side, trying hard not to make a face.
She may not have been a kraut fan then. But now, with more than 25 years in the restaurant industry, Lukas has grown into a kraut evangelist, bent on a mission to change the perception most of us have of the age-old condiment.
In 2008 in downtown Santa Cruz, she started her own business, Farmhouse Culture, which specializes in artisan contemporary kraut — made with local, organic and sustainable ingredients in intriguing, seasonal flavors such as Smoked Jalapeno, Apple Fennel, and Horseradish Leek.
Her raw, uncooked sauerkrauts can be found at nine Bay Area farmers markets, as well as local retail stores such as select Whole Foods, where they sell for about $7 for a 1-pound jar. For those outside the Bay Area, you’ll be glad to know that you also can buy the krauts on Foodzie.
Lukas knows sauerkraut may not be an easy sell to some palates, but she’s been pleasantly surprised by all the old-timers who come up to her to tell her they remember their grandparents making kraut or by the college students who have become regular customers at her farmers market stands after developing a new-found addiction to the stuff.
“I can’t tell you how many times a day people walk by our farmers market stands and say, ‘Sauerkraut? Ewwww…,’ ” Lukas says. “We talk them into trying a taste. I’d say 75 percent get converted. They tell us they hated sauerkraut their whole lives, but love ours.”
