German-Russian Stories Continued....

MAGICAL POWERS OF SAUERKRAUT

by

Lloyd Friedrick

In a message dated 12/15/03 1:23:50 PM, lloydfriedrick@telus.net writes:

<< The festive season is soon upon us and the autumn batch of Sauerkraut will  have seasoned by then.

But, did you know that Sauerkraut has magical power?

Here is the proof to this phenomenon.

During late fall and early winter in the 1930's on the Canadian prairie the local farmers would be hauling their fall harvest of grain to the elevator for sale.

Many of our neighbours were English colonists who had a limited knowledge of farming and most were too proud to learn from the German farmers.

One day, while one of these neighbours was in line with his load at the elevator with father he remarked, "Fred, we notice that you always seem to get the best "grade" for your wheat, why is that, we farm right beside you, the soil and the seed is the same but you must be doing something different?"

My father replied, "Well, it's something that you might not understand, but before I leave for town I bury a quart sealer of German Sauerkraut in my wheat and as I travel the five miles to town there is a magical transformation of wheat to a better grade"

The English farmer shook his head and said, "You Germans are sure a strange lot, but obviously it works, could I get some from you for my loads?" Dad said,

"Nope, it only works for us Germans!"

Of course, the English did not know that the local Pool elevator man really craved Mother's recipe of Sauerkraut and always knew that there would be some buried in the load.

Father boasted of this story to other G-R farmers in our district and it always provoked a bellyful of laughter.

lloyd friedrick >>

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Additional information:

Now, let me explain why there is a element of plausibility to this story.

Lloydminster Saskatchewan was an area that was homesteaded by a large group [2200] people from England in 1903. For the most part they were people recruited from industrial and urban areas of England and only a very few had ever seen a farm. For example, the man that lived across the road from us was a street photographer from London.

Many of them failed and abandoned or sold their homestead land at very low prices. This attracted many Germans from Russia including a lot of my relatives. They were recruited by the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian Government to fill the expansive prairie provinces.

Those English that remained and struggled on resented knowledgeable peasant farmers such as my father. They flaunted their superior manners so the Germans made a sport of offering them humorous advice. My father said he convinced Art Burke to grease the sleigh runners in wintertime to make it easier for the horses. Dad and my Uncles often repeated the story of one Englishman who spread a whole bag of rolled oats porridge on his spring garden because he truly believed that this is how he would get a good supply of porridge. This story is now in print in a new book "Prairie People"

So, this puts a different slant on the story that I submitted on sauerkraut.

I also noticed that this sauerkraut story is now on a web site in Australia.

Best regards

lloyd friedrick on Vancouver Island\