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” !