Last Sunday, we got the opportunity to visit a neighboring farm (and friend) for lunch, Rene. While our farm is at an elevation of about 500km, this farm is at 1,000km! Needless to say, there was a lot of ear-popping during the drive up ... it only took about 15 minutes to get there, but I must admit to fearing for my life at times. Not only are the roads topsy-turvy (and sometimes not even real roads), but the vehicle of choice for more than 2 people is a 1980s Land Rover (I promise to take pictures of it soon) with many missing parts and sounds like a full-on semi. But! We made it all in one piece, and got a tour of the farm as well as a delicious traditional Alsatian charcroute meal!
These lovely ladies walked right up to the kitchen window while we were enjoy some cheese and home-made Cassis. Geese can often be found on farms, acting as the family and farm "watchdog."
Lunch time! Home-made charcroute - sausages, sauerkraut, bacon, potatoes. And some beer: 1669, of course - the PBR of France.
The farm we ate it was literally hundreds of years old. Here's a cow and a baby that was just recently born. Really recently... like an hour ago.
Here is Rene's cheese 'cave' - all Tomme. I'm pretty positive that O & I could devour one of those wheels in one day... maybe, two.Time to make the turnip sauerkraut! Step One: Peel a boat-load of humongous purple-top turnips:
We probably ended up peeling about 50-60 of those bad boys. Then, you put the turnips through a very cool, very old fashioned version of one of these:
And there you have it! We filled buckets of the stuff with water and salt, and got to take one of the buckets home with us. Unfortunately, the stuff takes awhile to get good and sauerkraut-juicy, so we will have to wait about 2-3 months before we can try it. But I have a feeling it's going to be tasty! Be sure to stay tuned for our next post ... but here's a fair warning for you: it involves butchering a veal all the way to serving fried brain for lunch...
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