This year’s sauerkraut well underway in Tavistock

Tavistock Men’s Club members clocked plenty of steps Monday morning as they worked their way through 1,200 cabbages to make this year’s sauerkraut. John Schultz, right, joked he always breaks his walking record during the annual effort. Gary West photo

By Gary West

Less than 10 days after the Tavistock Men’s Club sold its last bag of sauerkraut from 2024, the Tavistock Cabbage Patch Boys were back at work Monday morning, turning 1,200 cabbages into the tangy local favourite.

In the clubhouse behind the Men’s Club Hall on Woodstock Street North, the scene resembled a factory assembly line as members chopped and mixed cabbages donated by Beanhaven Farms near Happy Hills. The aroma of the annual tradition, which began in the mid-1950s, could almost be smelled from the street.

Organizer Ross Schumm said demand continues to grow, with hundreds of two-and-a-half-pound bags sold locally each year and orders shipped as far as the East Coast, Northwest Territories and British Columbia.

Once the barrels are full and sealed, the 2025 batch will be ready for sale starting Nov. 10, just ahead of the Men’s Club’s annual Sauerkraut Supper. Extra bags will also be available for Christmas and Easter orders.

The secret recipe, members joke, is “locked in a cement vault” — though, as they like to add, “only their hairdresser knows for sure.”