Live Around Abenheim

The Abenheimer-Blaskapelle has a youth group, which like thier main band likes to give a concert; in the case of the youth group it’s once each year on the midsummer Sunday evening –  and, even better than the main band, it’s more informal in the yard of Hemer’s Vinyard: thus like all good events here it involves tables and chairs and food and drink, as well as some good music and musicianship, of course.

Today is the last day of the asparagus season. Season? That’s right, in Germany there is a clearly defined season with a first and last day for picking asparagus in the fields and selling it as a local fresh product.

Asparagus is more common across the river in Hessen where the Rhine Valley is flat for some miles inland, while on this side the hills rise up very quickly from the riverside and a piece of ground suitable for the plant is not so common: but most of the vinyards have an asparagus bed tucked away in their fields somewhere.

It’s white asparagus which is grown here, rather than the green stalks more common in more northern locations. It’s grown in sandy soil which is banked up into ridges so that the growing stems are protected from the light and keep their particular white colouring. To cut them involves going out early in the morning and looking for the heads which are just about to peek out from the ground, sliding a cutting tool down the side of the plant to cut it at the right depth, and then plucking out the stem. The sand is then filled back into the hole to keep the light out of the soil and protect the remaining plant.

The season is defined from around the end of April to the middle of June – I’m not sure how the exact dates are defined, but they are clearly defined and announced each year, and as the end approaches the “last day for asparagus” signs appear. This time of the year should of course be wonderful sunny days, and the early morning starts – some picking starts at first light, around 4:30 a.m. at the moment; nobody starts later than 6:00 a.m. – should be pleasant for the pickers, even if the work is back breakingly hard.

The pickers are normally seen out in the fields as the sun rises in very light, mostly very little, clothing and their daily deepening suntans. But this year the season has ended with a week of rain, especially today with a wonderful early morning downpour, which didn’t look fun at all.

The picking is in the early morning every day as the plants need to be harvested and brought in fresh and are then on sale immediately (from about 9:00 a.m.) intended for consumption on the same day. It can be kept for a short time as long as it is kept moist and out of direct light.

Taking the last chance we’ve got a couple of kilos of good asparagus to eat this week, and a kilo of odds and ends… now where’s that receipe for asparagus soup?

Abenheim has a Blaskapelle, that is a “wind band” – a sort of big band with brass and woodwind instruments and, for concerts, a few percussionists. The band takes part in just about all of Abenheim’s events where a marching band or concert group is needed (or just fits in nicely), and has a few concerts of their own. They’re also in demand for events in neighbouring villages and towns.

Last night was their 2007 Spring Concert. A programme titled Music tells the History (I think), a slightly odd collection of music each piece with a title related to a particular event or person in history, the most recognisable of them being the theme from the Lawrence of Arabia film, The Best of Bond (James Bond), and Titanic Story – this last one including a gospel-style sung storyline.

The Blaskapelle has about 40 active members in the main band (there’s a junior band and a recorder group too), and they wear a uniform of black/white with a “club” tie and black blazer for their official appearances. They are noted for their high standard.

Big concerts and other major indoor events in Abenheim take place in the Festhalle – the festival hall. This is a rather grandiose title for upstairs at the fire station! It is a hall, with a stage at one end (although there is no backstage), and a bar at the entrace end. Seated in theatre-style rows there’s room for about 300; last night, despite the high temperature we had had all day, it was full to overflowing.

Concerts here are civilised – you can get yourself a glass of wine, wine schorle, or beer if you must, and settle down in your seat for the concert. There was an interval after an hour, time enough for the audience to refill their glasses, and a second half of about the same length. There were also Bretzel to eat for anyone with an urgent need.

Although this concert was a (to me) a bit of an odd collection of music, ther performance was as good as ever, and remarkable for there were a significant number of new members in the senior band who have this year been promoted from the junior group.

It’s the “Abenheimer Kräuterwoche” (Abenheim Herb-Week); started today, Monday, with some sort of talk on herbal medicine at the Chemist’s in the afternoon, followed by and opening ceremony of sorts at 18:00.

As the opening ceremony is free it looked to be worth a visit; actually I have to admit this is the third year there’s been a Kräuterwoche and I wanted to look in on what was going on, but somehow didn’t have a chance before.

It all started a few years ago as a bit of a promotional effort for Abenheim, to offer something extra in addition to the wine. The vintner Christoph Lösch (Weingut Klosterhof) started a small Kräuterhof a herb garden, just down the road from his Vinyard, and together with the Chemist (Klausenberg Apotheke) and the Restaurant (zum Klausenberg) they set up a little group and created the Abenheimer Kräuterwoche – this is now a twice a year event in the spring and the autumn.

The opening ceremony was announced with the instuctions – meet at 18:00 at the Chemist – so we dutifully wandered up to the shop where an afternoon presentation on homeopathic home-pharmacy (use of herbs, I think) was just ending. It wasn’t exactly crowded: with Mr & Mrs Chemist, and the Ortsvorsteher (the village “mayor”) and about half a dozen others.

I was a bit puzzled as the next item was some opening songs by one of the village male-voice choirs (we’ve got two of them) and the choir members were a bit in short supply. But it soon came clear that as that part of the opening was to take place down the road in the restaurant the choir, and most others, had already gone there. Wonder why?

It was, though, quite interesting as the Chemist now has a small herb garden in the street outside the shop. Yes, you really can have something like that in Abenheim and nobody digs it up, steals the herbs, or even let thier dog run through it! So we had a little inspection of the herb garden, picked up an entry form for the “spot the herb” competition, and then we all (by then a good dozen) wandered off in the direction of the Klausenberg restaurant.

As the procession approached the restaurant, passing through the narrow bit of road by the town-hall in the center of the village and disrupting the evening through traffic quite nicely, just a nice bit of chaos was brewing as the combined forces of the Concordia choir were crossing the road en-mass on their way from I don’t know where to the restaurant. That really sorted the evening traffic out just nicely.

The restaurant chef Hans-Jürgen Armauer was waiting at the door to greet the choir and dignitries, we slipped in quietly in between them. It was a good start, a glass of Herb-wine was waiting at the bar for everyone (and there was plenty of it), and the crowd squeezed itself into the club room at the back of the restaurant. The choir burst into song – a few nice topical herbal songs, the officials made their speeches, and we all drank herb-wine. Just a nice spring evening in Abenheim!

At the end of the singing and speeches a painting of Hildegard von Bingen collecting herbs was unveiled by some sort of herb-witch (don’t ask me anymore about that) and some rather nice herb-cream spread on french bread was handed around (once again, there was plenty of it). On top of the herb-cream-spread was a little sprig of herb complete with flower; which, we were assured, was edible. Well I’m still alive to write this, so I guess it is edible! Indeed it was very tasty (the cream-spread at least) and if that’s setting the standard of the food and drink quality for the week to come, it looks good.

Finally there was a tour around Abenheim’s newest herb garden – at the back of the restaurant. This one will be a very practical working herb garden supplying the restaurant for it’s herb-special meals.

Did I mention, the theme of the Abenheimer Kräuterwoche is “Kräuter Küche und Kulture” which doesn’t quite flow so nicely in English “Herbs, Cooking and Culture” !

Eich is a small town (or large village?) about 15km north of Worms, on the Rhein if you include the fairly new golf course at the eastern side of the housing.

There’s nothing really remarkable about Eich: it has some shops and bars, a Penny Markt and a cheap petrol station. If you include the Rhine river-bank as part of Eich it also has a ferry, crossing every half hour over to Gernsheim in Hessen. And that’s about it…

Except for once a year when it is the site of the motorbike (or is it motorbikers) blessing. The catholic priest in Eich holds an outdoor blessing on a Saturday morning just after Easter which attracts about 15000 motorbikers, mostly from the region 100km around Eich.

Other than a photo and short article in the local newspaper this would mostly go unnoticed outside of Eich, except for the “drive-round” – after the blessing the motorbikers are allowed to make a 50km tour around the area, and this passes right through the main road here in Abenheim.

It started around 13:00, just a gentle rumble in the distance which steadily built up to a low roar as the first bikes approached the village. Then the noise built up to a throbbing procession of sound. It was worth a quick peak, as many of the bikers are enthusiasts with custom bikes it is a parade of colours, shapes and sizes as well as the obligatory sounds and smells of motorbike exhausts. Quite fun, as long as it’s only once a year for an hour or so!

Amazingly it takes place without totally closing the roads and causing total traffic chaos, but the sight of a tractor trying to nip across the main road in between swarms of bikes was worth the trip to the main road to see what was happening!

Well, here we go. I’m try to make a “where I am”, rather than a “who I am”, blog but I expect I’ll slip into some of the former thoughts as I have to be where I am, don’t I?
There’s a lot to tell, but this first entry will be short, otherwise it will never get done. Just an introduction:

Abenheim is a village in Germany, politically part of the small city of Worms, on the west side of the Rhein river between Frankfurt and Mannheim; geographically it’s part of the countryside, a self-contained village 3km from the North-West corner of the city conglomerate. So we have the best of many worlds, but more of that another day.

Abenheim has about 2000 residents and is well supplied with 2 butchers, 2 bakers, a supermarket, a chemist, 2 doctors, a couple of other shops for all sorts of useful things, a pub, a restaurant, and somewhat more than 20 vinyards (I’ve counted those with signs outside but there’s a lot more unannounced wine makers here!). I do my best to help with the main local industry (by sampling as many of the products as possible…)

I’m Len Killick (english) and I live here with my wife Hedi (german). We have a small music shop, specialising in accordeons. We play a lot of music ourselves: I play diatonic accordeon for folk dance and in a project called Celtic Journeys, Hedi sings and plays recorder, and we both play in a local Posaunenchor – that’s a church brass band. Obviously I’ll be taking you to the places around Abenheim where I go, as well as adding observations and notes about anything I find interesting on the way.

Why am I doing this? Abenheim doesn’t have a web site, and if it did it would probably be only in German, and I don’t see why the english speaking world shouldn’t be able to see what life is like in this part of the world – because I think it’s just great!