Click on the photo to see more pictures about kraut
making |
Since many, many years
the Schwäbische Männerchor follows the good
tradition of making Sauerkraut. One weekend day in late October or
early November gets chosen to meet in the garage of our music director,
Erwin Aufdemberge, to make Sauerkraut. The total amount of cabbage
processed exceeds typically 2000 lbs. The members who are actively
participating in making the kraut, take a certain quantity home for their
own usage. But a certain amount is also kept aside for the explicit
purpose to prepare kraut dishes for a family gathering sometime in late
January or early February of the following year.
Over the years the kraut making
evolved into a real nice social outing for the choir members. As the
kraut is being processed, it is not rare that someone starts to sing a song
known to the choir members and before long, the whole group chimes in.
There are eye witness accounts that quite often a person passing on the road
past Erwin's property would stop and listen to the singing emanating from
the garage. Well, there is something to be said about the good old
German saying; "Wo man singt da lass Dich ruhig nieder denn böse Menschen
kennen keine Lieder!".....
One less noted, but very
important aspect of the kraut making activity is to keep the knowledge of
how to process and store the kraut properly. So the most experienced "Krautmeisters"
would train the newcomers year after year to make more perfect kraut.
Once the family evening comes around, awards are handed out to recognize the
progress of each individual participant. There have been great
achievements over the years because certain people make steady progress and
have some real potential be become a Krautmeister themselves. But
there are also a number of individuals who barely make any progress year to
year. There were some instances when a person got designated
"un-trainable", which gives them zero prospect to ever become a Krautmeister.
But it was noted that those folks are better with Jägermeister than as
Krautmeister...... |
