Kevin Miller
Steigerwalt, Ohl, Helfrich, Zimmerman… the surnames of many of our neighbors here in Pennsylvania Dutch country are utterly familiar to my German ears. Some locals, such as my friend Todd, can trace their ancestors back to the mid-1700s when Germans first settled in our township. Continue reading
Photo credits (clockwise): @nikkioutwest, Kristl Walek, Dan Schneider, Eleanor Oliver, Sandra Atanackovic; (center): @michellecialone, Sandra Atanackovic, @kurtrosetree.
There’s no beating around the bush – German cuisine is neither hip nor cool. The Washington Post, in a March 2018 article entitled “Grandma’s food’: How changing tastes are killing German restaurants”, explained well why German restaurants in America, some of them over 100 years old, are closing all across the country. Their clientele is simply disappearing, and the grandchildren of their loyal customers, while they might visit Berlin, viewed as the most exciting city in Europe, they don’t return with a craving for German food that makes them seek out the German restaurant in town. Nor do millennials hurry to the kitchen to cook something German. Continue reading
For most of my 21 years in America, I have been baking my own bread. If you have lived in Germany with its tremendous variety of wholesome breads, you just cannot be without it. As a wrote before, baking German breads in America can be challenging, and I am always on the lookout for suitable flours and grains. In the case of Castle Valley Mill in Pennsylvania, the grains and flours include a German-American connection – and also a slice out of American colonial and industrial history. Continue reading
Spoonfuls of Germany 