You might think this is a load of cabbage, but the big vats of sauerkraut at La Conner Marina account for only about a quarter of the harvest from Farms Northwest.

Curtis Johnson, one of the owners of Farms Northwest, said the company was able to salvage only a fraction of its cabbage crop this year after the firm that had originally contracted to buy it to make sauerkraut closed in July.

When Pleasant Valley Farms shut down, the cabbage crop growing on 47 acres was in jeopardy because there was no place to process it.

Then Gielow Pickles of Michigan jumped to the rescue, and with help from th...