My week: May 6 ed.

I haven't written one of these in months, if not a year or so, and I have a ton of things to do around the house right now, so it makes perfect sense to write an update instead, eh?

Last year's focus was to take and pass the B2 Deutsch als Fremdsprache test from telc, which I did. I also wanted to join a club where I'd have to speak German all the time and volunteer (the latter doesn't have to be in German). I started, and have continued, both of those tasks, too, and it has made for a very interesting way to pass my time (in addition to working, of course!).

Something I didn't plan to do was break my ankle, which I did during a trip to Austria in December last year. It took three months before I could walk without crutches, and while I'm off them and even hiking again, my ankle isn't the same. Maybe someday I'll blog about that too, as it was quite the (not recommended) experience.

Anyway, now I'm back in the swing of things. I've been taking two different C1 German classes since the winter, so those are keeping me busy several nights a week, this week not excepted. As has been typical with my German-learning journey, I'm still vacillating between "yeah! I'm totally getting it" and "whoa, why is it that I can't even get the gist of this article, and I'm supposed to be so far along in German?" My biggest problem still is vocabulary and I've been very remiss in learning it. Folks, learn from my hard-hardheadedness: don't get behind in learning vocab or you'll be sorry! I'd like to take the C1 test late this year or maybe next year, but first I have to catch up on vocabulary.

In contrast to the hours I've spent in the classroom this week, J and I took a beautiful hike at Mehlinger Heide, which is a moor or more aptly, a heath, in Mehlingen, not far from Kaiserslautern. It's a mix of pine forests, a scrubby area that explodes with heather in later summer, which in turn makes me think of the Counting Crow song lyric that I misremembered as "lay me down in a field of flaming heather" when it's actually "lay me down in a field of flame and heather." Oops. That was pretty much the only thing I knew about heather before I visited the Heide, which I told J. It was such a gorgeous day and J is fantastic company. Someone we recently met at an event thought that we were a couple; we aren't, just really good friends, but we joke around and call each other "Schatz" to be funny. (Schatz literally means "treasure" but it's also a term of endearment for one's partner.)

I continued getting in touch with nature by taking a class about foraging wild foods from a local club. A. came with me and we learned how to make tasty food from daisies, stinging nettles, and dandelions. Our favorite dish was a "pizza" made with a "sauce" of stinging nettles and onions cooked in olive oil with seasonings. 

We received a free booklet that had been sponsored by the club and the state government that tells of the benefits of allowing wild plants to thrive. For example, there is a type of butterfly that only likes one kind of stinging nettle. The booklet mentioned some people who have arthritis use stinging nettles to help with arthritis pain. I'm such a smart...alec, that I had to keep myself from saying, yeah, well, duh, if you're itching from the nettles, the arthritis might take a backseat for a while.

It was also Maimarkt time, which is a giant trade show-travel market-horse show-and more in Mannheim which occurs at the end of April/beginning of May. Last year we didn't go for some reason, but this year A and I promised ourselves we'd go. It's hard to resist, especially since it's an easy train ride and the transportation ticket and entry fee is just less than 10 euros. 

As we were waiting for the train, herds of elderly Germans descended upon the station. I had to stifle a giggle (again, I'm a smart alec) because they were wearing a "uniform" of sorts. Whenever elderly Germans do something that they feel is somewhat sporty or active, they exhibit a propensity toward wearing a checkered button-up shirt, Jack Wolfskin adventure trousers (and often the kind that zip off into capris, men included, and preferably in khaki, taupe, or gray), and either hiking boots, or even better yet (or worse, depending on how you look at it!) sandals WITH SOCKS.  

See Exhibit 1:

This is only part of the group and see what I mean? They're mostly dressed the same and it turns out that they had the same destination we did: the Maimarkt, which doesn't really warrant hiking clothing as it's a flat area with exhibition tents.

When we arrived at the Maimarkt, we perused the tents and were excited to see a healthful food/vegetarian/vegan tent. A and I are both rather crunchy so this is right up our alley. We found a booth with various vegan offerings, which at first glance seemed great, but then I later wrote this Facebook rant about it:

Dear super-crunchy vendor at the Maimarkt: I am giving you the side eye (that sometimes turns into an eyeroll) about your bragging about how healthful and wholesome your food is. When I asked you if you added sugar to your chili sin carne, you said yes (I just had a feeling that you did - people looooove to add sugar to savory food in Germany). There is no good reason to add sugar to chili. It is not a dessert. If you want to have healthful food and advertise it as such, please don't add unnecessary and unhealthful ingredients to it. If you need to add flavor, please consider trying herbs and spices instead. I tried two other savory dishes (one Thai and one Indian) and the vendor had added sugar to those, too. It would've been so much better without it. Also, for those who rail about how unhealthful American food is, yes, it CAN be very unhealthful, but European food is not sinless either. All of Western cuisine could benefit from not using so much sugar, sodium, and fat.

After our unnecessarily sweet lunch, we made sure to peruse the travel booths and of course came up with many more places to add to our already too-long mental list of places we want to visit. 

When I got home, I took my bike out to forage for some nettles around the city. I then made some vegan, no-sugar added nettle soup that turned out quite well, if I do say so myself, with various frozen veggies from my freezer and vegetable stock. It was a good week.

My week: September 11 ed.

Monday of this week was a holiday so I slept in, bummed around, and went out to pick blackberries with my friend K. This year's crop of blackberries were pitiful; they were either shriveled from being in the sun too long, or were too small and bitter. We spent about an hour picking the ones that looked decent and each took a quart bag home. Last year, I picked so many blackberries that I filled my freezer and even shoved some into the freezer at work.

To be honest, though, I'm rather glad that this year I didn't feel obligated to pick blackberries like I did last year when I probably spent about 18 hours picking them. That sounds completely insane and as if I did it all the time, but it was over the course of a few weeks. I used the activity to relax after an all-consuming work project while listening to audiobooks and the new Tunde Olaniran album. I did get a bit sick of eating blackberries and haven't finished all the bags from last year yet so I can accept the significantly smaller yield this year.

Another night, A and I attended a lecture about Vietnam, which covered its history, culture, and the speaker's experience living there. The lecture was in German so it was a good chance for us to practice our listening skills. There was one part where neither one of us understood what the presenter was describing though. I'm still curious about that part!

I met a group for a language exchange meeting and sat next to a Syrian guy I had met before at a similar meeting. It had been weeks since I'd last seen him; during the previous meeting, he was excited to start a practicum. Curious, I asked him where it was going to be and what he'd be doing. At the time, he had no idea since the organizers hadn't told him much about it, but he was looking forward to working and being productive.

At the current meeting, he filled me in since he'd just finished the practicum. He had been placed in an office that helped others, including some of the refugees too, and had enjoyed the work. While he speaks very good German for someone who has lived here for only a year, he decided that he wants to pass the C1 test to really integrate in the work place.

I did feel sad about part of our conversation. We're hosting an event and we said he should invite his family too. I was starting to say it would be good to bring them, "weil die meisten Leute die Syrer nicht..." and before I could finish, he said, "mögen?"

The next word in my sentence was actually going to be "kennen." In other words, I had said that he should bring his family because most people don't _____ Syrians. He thought I was going to say that people don't like them, when what I actually said was that people don't know them and I went on to explain that it's good to meet people from different backgrounds. It's too bad that he thought that people might not like them. Maybe there are some people like that out there, but in our group, that's not who we are, and I'm glad.

Another evening was the start of a new Volkshochschule class with the same teacher I had in the spring. He's an excellent teacher but the class is somewhat too hard for me again. After much debating with myself, and asking his opinion, I decided to attend. My problem is that I feel as if I'm stuck between levels. Outside of vocabulary, I feel as if I'm past B2. However, C1 is a bit too difficult for me. Why does it feel as if I've missed so much? Is it such a jump between the two levels? Feel free to comment if you have any insights. I do know that I really need to kick my tush into gear with learning vocabulary because that's where I'm the weakest.

At the end of the week, I was exhausted so I stayed home and in one go read the entire 400+ pages of The First 15 Lives of Harry August by Claire North. I love time travel books and quest books; it was right up my alley.

On Saturday, I made my circuit around town, checking out some of the thrift stores, visiting downtown to see what was popping, and studying German for a while in the park. I love having what seem to be slightly lazy Saturdays, which are actually sneakily full of errands of a nosy sort.

After that, I visited the university's gardens for a free tour (in German) about herbs. I had planned to stay for the whole event but it was quite hot in the sun and after biking all over the city, I was hot, sunburned, dehydrated, and tired so I left early.

Sunday was Tag des offenen Denkmals, which is a nationwide heritage day in which historical buildings and sites are open for free tours. A. joined me for a stroll around Kaiserslautern and we visited the former Friedenskapelle, or the site of a small city cemetery that will be renovated as a center for community events. We also visited the Pfalzgrafensaal, which had been part of a castle located downtown, and were given a quick tour of the tunnels under the building.

We wrapped up our wanderings with a dinner of nachos at my place. I told A that people probably think that this is how Americans always eat. For the record, we don't ;)

Foraging: garlic mustard

One of the many awesome features of living in the Pfalz is the abundant greenery here, whether it's in the forest or if it's in the fields. In the past year, I've explored plant life more by learning about foraging wild foods. It's a perfect past time since I appreciate fresh herbs and plants but don't enjoy growing them myself. I let Mother (Pfalz) Nature grow them and I collect them. What might look like weeds are often something edible!

I recently learned about garlic mustard, which is in the mustard family (makes sense :) and smells faintly of onions and garlic. One can make pesto out of it; check out the recipe from Burdock & Rose.

I picked a huge bunch of it but didn't have time to make pesto before it started wilting. Instead, I hung it upside down in bunches to dry. Once that is complete, I'll strip the dried leaves and store them in jars to later add to soups to give a garlic flavor.

My week: August 30 ed.

This was a week for friends and for laziness. I had my tandem partner over for dinner on one evening. The next evening, I had two other friends over and they "made" me speak German most of the time. Both evenings were very enjoyable.

The rest of the week was spent in a very leisurely and lazy way. I made several after-work foraging expeditions to collect the last of the blackberries as the plants seem to be shriveling a bit now. It does seem to be the beginning of elderberry season so I've started on those too. The main problem is finding the ambition to deal with them. My freezer is packed and I haven't had motivation to make some cordials so I may have to stick them in the work freezer.

During the weekend, I took some bike rides, picked more berries, visited the Gartenschau, and wandered around downtown. I also ate dinner at Safari with my German friends and they "forced" me to speak German again, for about 75% of the time. I laughed because as I was whinging about having to speak German, my friend asked me if it was because I had a headache (this has been a truthful excuse of mine before). No, but I did tell him that it would give me a headache.

Despite that, we continued and it was good for me. I'm usually fine with involved conversations with one speaking partner, but it was a bit hard to follow with three other people and complex stories. We even started talking about behaviorism and animal training techniques because S is a psychologist. I did have to switch to English at that point since I don't know those words.

S and I started talking about the language around Stuttgart, which is Schwaben, which is where she's from. I told her the story of how I went to the garden party in a Stuttgart and this guy had such a strong accent. However, he had also enjoyed quite a few beers so I couldn't tell if he was drunk, Schwäbisch, or both! She thought that was funny.

It was a peaceful and relaxing week. Heck, it was a "slow living" kind of week where I didn't do much rushing around, other than getting the food and house in order to have friends over. I'm glad to have this time because September will herald another 9 months of  a packed schedule as German classes resume. 

Whoa, can I eat this right now?!

I was picking some blackberries today and some gangly, goofy teenage boys wandered by.

"Are those berries?" they asked me.

No, they're basketballs, I wanted to say. However, that would sound mean and I harbored no ill will toward the boys so I told them yes.

Super eager kid climbed into the berry patch and asked me if he could eat some berries, "like now."

I told him that if he was hungry, of course.

He dug in and gave some to his friend. "Whoa, this would make really good lemonade!" he exclaimed.

I tried not to laugh since lemons are what make lemonade and I think he really meant juice. However, to be fair, there is lemonade with other juices added, so why not.

"Thank you, ma'am!" as he left. As if it weren't already apparent, he's a military kid.

The kids cracked me up. You'd think they had never seen wild berries before! To be fair, maybe they haven't. Then I thought of my experience and realized that I've never really paid attention to them before moving here (where they're abundant; thank you Pfälzerwald!) so it's not as if I had really seen any either. I've obsessively researched edible plants in books and online in the last several months and I've learned much since then (with more to go!). We all have to start somewhere and it's fun to see people start to really notice the nature around them.

My week: August 23 ed.

The theme of this week was: More Foraging! It was also an opportunity to introduce someone else to foraging since I had a house guest. I've foraged so many blackberries that my freezer is just about bursting with the fruits of my labor (har har).

I asked my guest what he wanted to do. I suggested foraging and a bike ride around town. He agreed and we grabbed my bikes, heading off to the berry patch. As a light rain fell, we picked berries. I told him how the other guys had climbed the tree to pick Mirabellen for me but I was a bit horrified, worrying if they'd fall out of the tree. He thought that was amazing so climbed up the tree himself to get Mirabellen! Not to sound like a nervous Nelly or anything, but I'd feel so guilty if anyone fell out of the tree when trying to help me.

All was well and we toured town with my bike pannier stuffed with fruit. My guest was absolutely thrilled; he kept thanking me for the wonderful night out in nature. That made me smile; not too many people get excited about dodging brambles in the rain.

I went on several other berry picking expeditions during the week, listening to the new Tunde Olaniran album as I did so (it is excellent). After picking the berries, I froze them in a single layer pan and then threw them into a bag in the freezer to keep them.

On the weekend, I joined my friend D on a trip to the Wildpark Betzenberg in the eastern edge of Kaiserslautern. It's exactly what it sounds like: a park, full of wild animals, in the woods. There is no entry fee and no gate, for that matter; just walk along the paths to the pens.

A previous coworker had visited the park and swore that the "wildcat" was just a house cat they stuck in a pen. For some reason, I thought that was hilarious, imagining that the previous wildcat died and someone said, "oh, let's grab our cat Karl and stick him in. No one will notice."

Yes, that's completely silly, but it is striking how similar the wildcats are to regular domestic cats. In one cage, there was a momma and her kitten. He teased her, pouncing on her tail. He was a cute little scamp! I grabbed a picture of momma cat.

I really didn't do a lot this week but I definitely enjoyed relaxing, foraging, and spending time with friends.

Some recent foraging moments

I'm totally digging foraging and developing traditional homesteading skills right now. I've recently had the following experiences, which (to me, at least) are a funny juxtaposition of the natural world and the not-so natural world.

-I was foraging some wild raspberries at one of the installations and was thinking about how I'd like to learn more about botany to really interact more with the wild environment. Suddenly I had to retreat into the foliage to avoid being squished by a Humvee.

- I was driving a coworker in my car so we could go pick up our work vehicle. At the installation's gate, we stopped to show our IDs. The guard looked into my backseat and said, "What IS that?" I said, "Do you know what fruit roll-ups are?" (he was German, so he might not have). He answered in the affirmative so I said that I was making cherry fruit roll-ups. He cracked up and waved me through. Indeed, I am using the foraged cherries and am dehydrating them in the car (which is said to be a hack when person doesn't have a dehydrator). Crazy Homesteading Using One's Car Level Attained: 8.

A forager's delight: raspberry pie!

I baked mini raspberry pies from wild raspberries I foraged and crust I made from scratch today. I have mad skillz; what can I say? Just ignore the sad looking lattice work on the pies. Despite that, the pie I had tasted great and even the gnome would love to dig in with his trowel.

Getting my forage on

One of my new goals is to learn more about foraging, preserving food, and improving homesteading skills. I'm not 100% sure why I feel the need to have these skills, but I like to keep my brain busy by learning something new, so why not learn something that also has the advantage of being practical?

Considering that I live in the city and it's the most cramped place I've lived so far, it's a bit ironic that I'm getting back to basics. For the record, Kaiserslautern is a typical German city that's no more cramped than other cities here, but it's my first go-round with living in Germany and it's more compact than it was in the US, as is expected, or even where I had lived in the UK.

Anyway, I think that a lot of people might foster the idea that getting back to the basics requires a lot of land and aptitude. Let me tell you: I have neither land nor aptitude, but I'm bungling along reasonably well and am enjoying myself, to boot.

Foraging wild foods is not impossible, nor does it necessarily have to take place in the countryside. Now that I've learned about some common things that are native to this area, I've found them easily in the city. I've had even better luck out in the countryside surrounding Kaiserslautern.

On just one stretch of country road a half mile in length, I recently found: wild sour cherries, elderflowers, black berry plants, and rose hips. These are only the things that I know; I imagine that there might be even more things! I look forward to learning just what those things might be.

My week: June 21 ed.

I'm freeee! Okay, not quite, but I will now have a little more free time since one of my German classes ended this week. Now I'll only have two lessons a week instead of four. It took a lot out of me to have so many classes per week, with just the amount of time alone that it took!

-I met up with my dear friend D for a walk, some wild foraging, and an evening of German speaking, which I normally don't do with my friends. We also ate at my favorite restaurant. It was perfect. 

-I collected more Holunderblüte, or elderflowers, and put together a mix for a fizzy elderflower lemonade-style drink. I'm really enjoying learning more about foraging wild food. While I was looking for some more sambucus (Latin name for the tree), I found some wild cherry trees. Score! It will be awesome to learn more because being able to identify plants and their uses changes one's perception of the countryside.

-I went to a group campout with a dear friend I haven't seen since earlier this year. We had been partners in the "crime" of wearing Dirndl in the Pfalz. We also met up with an awesome guy and fellow cat lover whom I had met in Munich in January. All of us got along fabulously and we hope to meet up in Kaiserslautern...sometime. All of us have such crazy schedules that it's hard to get together. It's hard to say, well, maybe we could all see one another again in August, or...?

I was even more excited when I found out that first friend is planning a trip to the US next year with her boyfriend. They'll be there the same time I will be. My good friend from work, C, had already planned to meet up with me. After some excited conversation and some texting to the US, we determined that all four of us will meet up and go on a road trip. I'm super excited; it'll also be an opportunity to introduce them to my US friends. I love how small the world can be sometimes.

-Even though I was super tired after coming home from the campout, I did drag myself out of a nap and met up with some friends for dinner. That was awesome!

So, this week was tiring but excellent, with a chance to reconnect with some friends I know from all over, and to plan for future adventures.

My week: June 14 ed.

Well, this is somewhat of a first: I ran out of steam by the middle of the week. Usually it's the end of the week when that happens. I attended 3 of the 4 German classes but one evening, when I was sitting in my first class and nursing a headache, I started to wonder how I was going to make it through another almost three hours before I'd get home. I then had a liberating thought: I was going to go home and relax instead of going to class. I very much had needed that!

-I also met with my tandem speaking partner. I finally downloaded a free app on my phone so I was ready to make a request of her: would she say my weekly vocabulary words for me? She indeed did and now I have a very handy recording of that chapter's words with the English definitions. I just don't have any time to make and review flashcards right now so this is an excellent alternative that I can listen to in the car.

-After getting home after 10 pm one night, I realized that I really needed to get cracking on making the strawberry freezer jam. I didn't have time to stop by the commissary for pectin so I bought Gelierzucker from Lidl, which is what Germans use for making jams. It's sugar mixed with the pectin.

This was a rather impatient move and a great way to stretch my already overburdened brain late on a work night, right? Yeah, it makes total sense (rolling my eyes here). Take my advice: if you're not good/experienced at doing domestic stuff, don't have a lot of time, and are stressed, it's not the best idea to try to make something new especially using instructions in a foreign language. Thanks to the kind help of a lady in an internet forum, I got it all figured out and put up some jam.

It was delicious but very, very sugary. I recently read about a different kind of pectin that uses a calcium addition and one can use minimal sugar with it. That warrants further research (and probably ordering it online from the US).

-I went to the Lange Nacht der Kultur in Kaiserslautern with my sidehugging friend (inside joke), J; we later met up with his friend H. Lange Nacht is an evening of culture, entertainment, and performances. Cultural (and not so cultural) institutions throughout the city throw open their doors (well, to those who've purchased the entry wristband) and welcome visitors. We were out until about 1:30 a.m. then called it a night.

-I spent a day at home, relaxing followed by cleaning and working in the house. I washed my kitchen floor by hand, using a scrub brush and rag. I usually steam mop and was surprised at how much cleaner the floors were after hand washing them. Word to the wise on those: if the tile floors have a texture to them, the steam mop doesn't do the best job ever.

I also finished making the elderflower syrup. Mmm, is it good! I froze it because it is not shelf stable when homemade. Continuing on the domestic loop, I dreamed up ways to use the kilogram of spinach I bought (only 2.50 euros at the farmers' market!). I ate a spinach omelet for breakfast, a spinach smoothie for lunch, and made spinach spaetzle for dinner. It barely made a dent in the bag so I have to figure something out for freezing the spinach because I won't be able to eat it fast enough.

Making Elderflower Cordial with locally foraged flowers

 --WARNING: this blog entry is for entertainment purposes only. If you are interested in foraging wild foods, please check with a professional first. Use plant identification guides from a reliable source to make sure you are foraging the right plant to avoid toxicity.--

Walking through the woods in May and June, one might come across an interesting smell. It's slightly flowery, ranging from a sweet scent to one with slightly bitter undertones. Following the scent, one might come across a bushy tree exploding in clusters of creamy white flowers. The flowers themselves are beautiful little creatures, with lovely petals adorned with five jaunty yellow stamen  jutting up like a 60s-influenced satellite design.

Oh you pretty little elderflower you! Please use a plant ID book to be sure you're foraging the right thing.

Hello elder shrub! Please use a plant ID book to be sure you're foraging the right thing.

These lovely bushes are Sambucus, or elder shrubs. They can even begin to look like trees. Those who've watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail might have to stifle the overwhelming urge to holler, "your mother was a hamster and your father smellt of elderberries!"*

 
Even better than the Monty Python reference is that these bushes can be harvested to create some delicious things! For those living in Germany, one might be familiar with Holunderblütensirup, which basically translates to elderflower syrup, made from the shrub's flowers. It's often used in Hugo cocktails, a refreshing mix of sparkling wine, the elderflower syrup, fizzy water, mint leaves, and lime juice. 

Since I'm on this weird Susi Hausmacher kick lately, I decided that I too would make some elderflower syrup (often called cordial). I'm very lucky in that I have access to an area that has a plethora of lovely foragable treats so finding elderflowers was a breeze. Now that I know what they look like, I have also seen them all over, even within the city limits of Kaiserslautern.

I found a recipe online and made a sugar syrup to start the Holunderblütensirup making process. Since I'm new to this, I bugged out a bit when I found out how much sugar one would use: this particular recipe called for four pounds of sugar to a little more than five cups of water! I guess that's where the syrup part comes in. After the syrup had boiled, I poured it over the flowers, oranges and lemons, and their zest. I will steep it for a day and then bottle it and freeze it. The recipe didn't call for citric acid so I have to be careful with storage and handling even with the high sugar content and citrus fruits. I can't wait to make my own Hugo at home, with the elderflower syrup that I made myself.


*Oh, wait, let's be honest: I did quote the Monty Python line, quite gleefully, in fact. We were obsessed with this in high school and even watched part of it as part of our Humanities class. I'm not entirely sure why, except maybe because...um, the Crusades or something? I went to a Catholic high school so it's ironic they'd show it.