Posted 24 Sep 2011 by Paul David
The rain held off which made for a great day at the Kutztown PA German Cultural Heritage Festival. Craftsmen dressed in period garb demonstrated a wide variety of traditional PA German customs --all outside or in authentic PA German buildings.
The Grow Indie stand was a huge hit, featuring organic heirlooms grown in the test/community garden on site. Next to the stand in a nearby barn a colonial era man demonstrated how to thresh Amaranth grown in the Grow Indie garden.
My friend Eric and I weaved through the crowd and made our way to the food vendor serving up the best apple dumplings ever plus turkey BBQ and other favorites. Filled up with pie we went on to check out the fiddle players in the one-room schoolhouse, the classic old cottage where someone was kicking out homemade sauerkraut, the women spinning wool in the stone house, the pot belly pigs "including dear pudding pop" lazing about on the grass, the muzzleloader man, the thatched roof demonstration, and more!
The festival does a great job recreating for a day the experiences and traditions of the Pennsylvania Germans.
