Schmeckfest: Food Traditions of the Germans from Russia

One-hour videotape documentary produced by Prairie Public Television, and North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo, ND, copyright 2000.

Traditional foods, savory recipes and folk memories are important in the history and culture of the Germans from Russia community. Prairie Public Television has produced this second videotape documentary focusing on foods as folk survivals. The award winning documentary, The Germans from Russia: Children of the Steppe, Children of the Prairie, featured Amanda Fetzer and her daughter Lorraine Fetzer Ketterling at Wishek, ND, making Strudels.

Visit the kitchens of and reminiscing with Theresa Kuntz Bachmeier, Rugby, ND, making Cheese Buttons (Kaseknoepfla); Annie Roesch Larson, Aberdeen, SD, making Easter Bread (Kranz); Sam Brungardt, St. Paul, MN, making Spiced Watermelon Syrup Bread (Pfeffernuesse Brot); Edna Goebel Johnson, Horace, ND, making Knoepfla Soup; Maria Wohn Applehans, Wheatridge, CO, making Grebbel and Schnitzel Soup; Judy Eman Teske & Carol Just Halverson, St. Louis Park, MN, making Wedding Schnapps; Vi Kruckenberg Schielke, Beulah, ND, making Fleischkuechle; Jackie Dohn Maas, Plymouth, MN, making Watermelon Pickles; and the Lipp family of Aberdeen, SD, making Wedding Kuchen.

Share the festivities of making fresh churned butter, an authentic wedding with folk customs and dress, husking corn, and serving custard and fruit Kuchen at the Schmeckfest at Eureka, SD, and the 74th Annual Sauerkraut Day at Wishek, ND. Preparation of wedding Kuchen at Aberdeen, SD, the Schachlika Crimean foods in Richardton, ND, making of the famous Knöpfla Soup at Kroll's Kitchen in Fargo, and an old-fashioned Harvest Fest at Richfield, MN, are additional vignettes of culinary memories which feed the soul and warm the heart.

This limited-edition videotape is available to those who order their request from the GRHC website. The videotape will contain special footage not seen in the 60-minute documentary including wonderful segments of sharing memories about growing up German-Russian.

Theresa Kuntz Bachmeier, Rugby, ND, making cheese buttons (Käse Knöpfla).	Edna Goebel Johnson, Horace, ND (left), and her sister, Martha Goebel Jenner, Phoenix, AZ, making Strudla and Knoepfla.
James Harr and Cora Lee Teske, Aberdeen, SD, are married at the Pioneer Chapel during the Schmeckfest at Eureka, SD, in September, 1999. Cora is wearing historic clothing of her grandmother. Traditional wedding banquet foods are displayed on a white lace table.	Evelyn Ziegler Tonra, St. Louis Park, MN, native of Beulah, ND, makes German dumplings or Knoepfla and cooked apples. Evelyn's ancestral German villages is Selz, Kutschurgan District, near Odessa, Ukraine.

For more information about the Germans from Russia videotape documentaries, consult the following websites:

Prairie Public Broadcasting, Inc., Fargo, North Dakota
http://www.prairiepublic.org

Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo, North Dakota at the Media section "Video Documentary and Other Projects"
http://library.ndsu.edu/grhc

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Documentary review by Barbara Selig

Schmeckfest Review