Grandma Trude is a big fan of Christmas. She loves going to Christmas markets and eating stollen. And now her grandson Michi has found an organic baker in Saxony with a bold plan: to bring old varieties of grain back to life – and back into his oven.
My Dears,Winter is here! And I’m delighted because that means Christmas is just around the corner. My whole family – kids and grownups alike – are already excited and looking forward to getting together again in the beautiful south of Germany.
And for Christmas, here’s an inspiring story about the latest winner of our Eco-Projects Challenge, whom my dear grandson, Michi, discovered with his girlfriend, Helene. Thank goodness Michi’s such a go-getter. But it’s more thanks to Helene’s soft spot for Christmas markets and for stollen that we now know all about an ambitious project in Dresden: organic baker Erik Spiegelhauer’s plan to bring the rediscovered Pirna rye back to life. During a trip to the winter wonderland of Saxony, the two of them came up with another winner – remember Michi’s previous find, namely coffee brought all the way from Central America by sailboat. I’m also going to tell you a little about a traditional Christmas handicraft that is known and admired all over the world.
A wide variety of Saxon Christmas traditions
Here’s how it happened: Michi, who recently moved to Leipzig, and his girlfriend Helene, took a trip to the Erzgebirge, where they make the famous “Ore Mountain” wooden figures. Saxony is renowned for its wide range of Christmas traditions. You’ve seen them before: the incense smokers, nutcrackers, pyramids and candleholders – all made of wood. And the so-called Moravian stars (Herrnhuter Sterne) in the windows, shining brightly through the dark season. If you’re unfamiliar with all this, you’ll find pictures galore on the Internet. Nearly every Saxon window is also decked out for Christmas with a Schwibbogen, a decorative arched candleholder that comes in all sorts of different motifs. They used to hold real candles, now they’re usually electric. They symbolize the miners’ longing for daylight, for sunshine, which they don’t get much of, especially in winter.Then Michi and Helene went to Dresden, the Saxon capital, where you can pick up these carved Erzgebirge items at beautiful Christmas markets. The Striezelmarkt there is one of the oldest in Germany. It’s interesting to know how Christmas markets first came about: In the late Middle Ages, people had to stock up on food and supplies for the winter – especially meat – as soon as the cold season set in. And that’s how today’s Advent markets – called Christkindl markets in Bavaria, by the way – first got started.
So, on the third weekend of Advent, Michi and Helene were magically lured by the smell of Saxony’s famous Christmas stollen to Dresden in search of gifts and treats. Remember my mother’s stollen recipe? This Christmas fruitcake is simply yummy. The denizens of Dresden think so too, which is why they even have a stollen association and a big Stollenfest every year. Not only that, but local bakers get re-certified every year in order to put the coveted “Authentic Dresden Stollen” seal on their fruitcakes. This year there are 106 certified cake makers, including some organic bakers. And Helene just absolutely had to get some of that organic Dresden stollen.
Old rye rediscovered
Their quest led them to the Bio-Bäckerei Spiegelhauer, whose stollen bears the golden seal of local authenticity and is known to be incredibly scrumptious. On the organic bakery’s Facebook page, they also read about the young master baker’s idea of bringing back a grain that was once widely grown in Pirna, a small town just outside of Dresden, over a century ago. Baker Erik Spiegelhauer, a staunch advocate of slow food, has his sights set on baking rye bread out of this local cultivar.Spiegelhauer’s search for the seeds must have been arduous – and, unfortunately, he initially came up empty-handed. His appeals on social networks did get shared around a-plenty, but there weren’t any seeds of this particular variety to be found in any barns in the vicinity. So he had to resort to a seed bank. The Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research in Gatersleben, Saxony-Anhalt, saved the day by supplying a few seeds: 33 grams, to be exact. So Erik Spiegelhauer and his business partner, an organic farmer named Bernhard Steinert, started by planting those seeds in Steinert’s garden. Michi wanted to find out all about their project first-hand. “We zipped right over to the farm,” Michi told me breathlessly over the phone. “Didn’t even take an hour to get there, Granny.” But when they got there, the farmer told them with regret that the rye hadn’t thrived there in his garden. So now Spiegelhauer is actually growing it himself right beside his bakery. He said it was an arduous process, tough going and a lot of work. But he found the idea of reviving an old local variety of rye very cool. And this cultivar is particularly appealing to farmers because it can grow up to 2m20 tall, which makes for plenty of straw to strew in the barn.
I love stories like this and I’m delighted about the two farmers’ hands-on efforts to make a change. Their sustainable approach to producing locally and minimizing transport is simply terrific!
Good things come to those who wait
One grain of Pirna rye will yield forty grains next year, and so on with each successive harvest, so the Spiegelhauer bakery probably won’t be making its first Pirna rye bread till 2025. But Helene and Michi have made me so awfully curious about the beautiful Baroque city of Dresden that I just can’t wait that long to see it. So I’m going next Advent come hell or high water! And then we’ll feast on the local fare!For now, I wish you a lovely Christmas with sustainable gifts under the decorated tree and a relaxing and restorative time with your loved ones. I’ll be spending a lot of time in the mountains in January, so I’ll be back in touch in February.
All the best
Granny Trude
December 2022