Apfelschorle!

I first tasted "Apfelschorle" at a farm museum in Germany.

 It was a beautiful place, overlooking a picturesque valley.

I could have spent a week there, but we only had a few hours, which included one of my favorite hours, the lunch hour :)

My fellow McCloy fellow in agriculture, Erin, introduced me to this wonderful drink. 

Here's what Wikipedia says about Apfelschorle (pronounced Ahp-fell-shore-luh).

"Apfelschorle, also known as Apfelsaftschorle, is a popular soft drink in Germany. It consists of carbonated mineral water and apple juice. The broader category Fruchtschorle consists of any fruit juice mixed with carbonated water, but Apfelschorle is by far the most common. Spritzer (that is wine mixed with carbonated water) is called Weinschorle.

Apfelschorle contains fewer calories and is less sweet than pure apple juice. This makes it popular in summer and among athletes. Commercially available Apfelschorle generally contains between 55% and 60% juice.... However, in most bars and restaurants, Apfelschorle is mixed ad hoc from apple juice and carbonated water."

I make it at home...a lot...ever since I introduced my children to "the special drink".

I love that it is bubbly like soda and not as sugary.

And it's SO simple to make!

1 part apple juice.

1 part sparkling water. (I found the "Mendota" brand at our local grocery store called Hugo's)

If you REALLY want to knock the kiddos' socks off, serve it in a wine glass, just make sure it's a wine glass you don't mind having broken. I don't know about your place, but my kids break stuff. all. the. time.  :-)

When served in a wine glass, Apfelschorle can also make a pregnant lady feel like she's drinking something alcoholic.  Not that I really NEEDED something alcoholic when I was pregnant, but it just felt nice to have that glass stem in my hand :)

Also, my oldest daughter, C.W., takes the ingredients for Apfelschorle when she's "snack kid" at her pre-school.  She has done this three times and it's always a big hit! 

However, I found out that this last time she was "snack kid" some of her classmates requested to only have the sparkling water.  When I asked WHY they only wanted the sparkling water she informed me that "it made them burp a lot".  Uhuh.

Well, I THOUGHT Apfelshorle may somehow impose some class and culture on them, but leave it to kids to just be kids! LOL! :)

Have fun making Apfelshorle!  Special THANKS to American apple growers, like my friend in Michigan, Jeff Vanderwerff !

Thanks for stopping by,
Sarah :)

Farmer's Market in Speyer, Germany

In Germany, due to limited space for growing crops, farmers are finding many niches to maximize profits, including selling their products directly to consumers through farmer's markets. I have many fond memories of helping my family at our stand at farmer's markets in Maryland as a child, so visiting this market brought back many wonderful memories of the energy of the people, the sights of the various goods, and the glorious smells of the variety of foods that can be found at farmer's markets.

A few antique tractors were on display, including this Massey Ferguson. Victor, the son of our tour leader, thoroughly enjoyed the market.

What a crowd! The main street of the city was packed with booths, including homemade plum butter, being cooked on the spot, a sheep shearing demonstration, ovens filled with fresh bread, and beautiful displays of fall vegetables.

Here I am by this fun family of bales.

We found a waffle bakery at the foot of the cathedral in Speyer. The cathedral has a beautiful dome and many kings and other royal family members are buried beneath the cathedral.

That waffle looked and tasted SO good!

Mmmm....Victor thinks that is one good waffle!

First attempt at posting a video on my blog...hope this works...

Schmiedhof Dairy and Tobacco Farm in Germany

Mr. Roland Bellaire, owner of Schmiedhof Farm explaining how a large section of his farmland will be taken by the government for flood control for the Rhine river. A difficult situation indeed.

Govt. issue eartags on a Fleckvieh calf at Schmiedhof Farm. Required by law as soon as the calf is born. There is a hefty fee for lost tags. Inspectors can drop by the farm anytime to check eartags, without notice.

The main freestall barn where the herd of 70 Fleckvieh cows are kept.

Dominik and his daughter who would rather have him play with her than lead a farm tour. She kept saying "Papa...Papa....". I miss hearing my girls saying Papa. Oh but these three weeks are flying by.


Okay, back to business....

We toured the Schmiedhof Farm in Neupotz, Germany. The farm is owned by Mr. Roland Bellaire and his son, Dominik. They have 412 acres of tillable land, including 62 acres of hay, 55 acres of tobacco, 13.75 acres of parsley, and also some mustard.

Here our host, Dirk Gerling, right, discusses the stats of the Wilson Farm and a small photo book I brought along with Dominik Bellaire. The size of our family's farm, at over 3,000 acres, although just an average farm in North Dakota, seems to be a pretty hot topic here, where farms tend to be much smaller due to the large population base and many more forested areas.

The Bellaire's milk 70 head of Fleckvieh cows. 140 total head of cattle with young stock included.

Average milk production per lactation (each time a cow has a calf she lactates) is 8,500 Liters. Average lactation lasts 370 days. Milkfat percentage is 4.3. Protein percentage in milk is 3.8%

They currently milk in a double four tandem parlor where the cows are lined up head to tail in individual stalls, but they hope to upgrade to a robotic milker in the future.

Roland is currently the chairperson of the county farmer's association.

A gadget is installed on their tractor to change the tire pressure from inside the cab when they go from driving in the field to on the road and vice versa.

Every tractor here is required to have a license plate.

Certainly many differences between how we farm in the U.S. and how they do things here in Germany, but we have a lot of common ground as well. Very grateful to the Bellaire family for taking time out of their busy schedules to show us around their well-run operation.

Wine Tasting Near Bonn, Germany

One of my fellow fellow's, Herr (Mr.) Maryland, and I get ready to do some tough work....wine tasting :)

Last evening Mr. Klaus Lotz and his lovely wife, Barb, accompanied our group to a wine cooperative near Bonn, Germany called "Mayschofs-Altenahr". 400 grape growers belong to this cooperative which produces many award winning wines.

A gentlemen named Ley, who is also a grape-grower, presented four wines to us and walked us through the wine tasting process. A wonderful lesson in value-added agriculture, and the "culture" of agriculture.

The region has steep inclines where grape harvesting machines cannot be used. Each hectare (2.2 acres) requires 2000 hours of labor to care for and harvest the grapes. Each bunch of grapes is hand "read" and imperfect grapes are separated before the bunches of grapes are sent to the wine making process.

90% of the wine in the area is Burgundy red wine.

This cooperative sells 1 million liters of 80 different kinds of wine each year. One of the best is this one...

It is a 2008 Burgundy with a complex taste, was fermented in German oak barrels and has a 400 year old picture on the label. It costs 14 Euros per bottle.

I sincerely enjoyed sampling the fruits of the cooperative's labor. Some of the best wine I have ever had, and spending an evening learning about the business of wine making amongst good company and very gracious hosts was a joy.

One lovely meal caps off one long day in Germany

Sunset last night over the Atlantic Ocean.

My ride to Frankfurt.

I arrived in Frankfurt at 6:30 a.m. this morning. I spent the day at the airport people-watching and being reminded how much I am NOT into the skinny jean fad.

At long last, I met my travelling companions on our 4 o´clock train to Bonn.

The trip was lovely as our group chatted it up about our varying interests in agriculture and the scenery was breath-taking. The tracks wound along the Rhine River for the two hour trip. Perched on nearly every vineyard-covered hilltop was a "schloss" or castle, reminding me of how new North Dakota is as a state how much longer Germany has been "developed"...hmm...going to have to think more on that one another day.

We arrived in Bonn, the former capitol of Western Germany, and checked into our hotel, the Andreas Hermes Akademie. What a neat and tidy place, with very gracious hosts that handed each of us a pack of sheep-shaped gummy bears as we signed in. A big bonus to a weary traveller. Will have to find some more to take home to my kiddos.

The view from our hotel room.

Mr. Willi Kampmann, Director of International Affairs for the Deutscher Bauernverband (German Farmers Assn.) picked us up and all five of us piled into his car, quite smaller than the `Hi-Ho Diesel` or `Silver´, our family pick-ups. We went to a restaurant called `Bastei`, where we met Willi`s predecessor, Dr. Klaus Lotz.

View of the Rhine from the restaurant.

L to R: Herr Kampmann, Herr Lotz, Frau Connecticut, Herr Maryland ö

Over an amazing meal of a crisp salad with smoked salmon and lemon-caviar, we sipped Reisling, we discussed many of today´s agricultural issues while looking out over the sunset on the Rhine River and a ferry shuttling cars back and forth across the quickly flowing waters.

Lots of ideas were exchanged on farmer´s organization structure, risk management tools in agriculture, the animal rights movement, financial challenges for farmers, politics, and last but certainly not least, our shared passion for FOOD- producing it and eating it!

One LONG day, with a perfect happy ending....

A dessert menu in ENGLISH!!! Ö

oh, and did I mention the ice cream? Simply delectable!

I have now been awake since 7:00 a.m., yesterday. Good night world!

Germany-bound to Study International Agriculture!

Today is a VERY busy day of errands and packing, packing, and some more packing.





I depart at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning for the trip of a lifetime- the McCloy Fellowship in Agriculture. I am honored and extremely grateful to have been awarded this opportunity through the American Farm Bureau Federation. I am also grateful that my family "out east" has agreed to take care of my children while I'm gone so that Jeremy can focus on harvest here on the Wilson Farm.




I will do my best to update my blog with my experiences abroad, but I'm not quite sure about the access I will have to the internet over there, so stay tuned.

I am also excited to get united with my "fellow Fellow's" from Kansas, Maryland and Connecticut! From what I've already gotten to know about these folks through phone, email, and Facebook convo's, they are stellar people, and we're going to have a great time!

Please say a little prayer for safe travels for myself and my girls, and for a safe and abundant harvest here on the farm.



Well, I'm off, toting the following:





2 children. (One of which has been asking me as soon as her eyes opened EVERY day for a week "where are we going tomorrow?", hoping for "on an airplane!" as my response. Today she got her wish!)





1 portable DVD player (so I can maintain my sanity on the flights with one wriggling 1 year old on my lap, and 1 uber-independent 3 year old in the seat next to me).





2 suitcases





1 diaper bag





1 backpack





1 double stroller (Freshly scrubbed to rid the corners of the seats from an accumulation of dismembered Teddy Grahams, and a small rock collection I found in one of the pockets).





2 car seats. (Didn't scrub them...whoops. It's okay, if we are struck by famine, we could live for a week off of the Goldfish wedged under the cushions.)

1 Lightning McQueen backpack. (We can't go anywhere without the Lightning McQueen backpack. Thanks Santa. GREAT idea Santa. Santa, you maybe should have thought of dragging that thing everywhere before you decided to leave it at our house.)

Oh, and let's not forget...1 partridge in a pear tree.



Here's what I will look like at the airport :)








We'll return in about 25 days, my children having had some quality time with family they don't often get to see and myself having filled my brain with all sorts of new knowledge about international agriculture and having made a gaggle of new friends.

What I will miss while I'm gone:
1. My beautiful girls and my sweet, hard-working husband, in no particular order.
2. My pickup and the general independence of being able to drive.
3. The prairie.

Auf wiedersehen! Uh, that's about all I know in German. It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks :)