Mennonites Are Us: Kielke und Schmontfat

That's pretty much the extent of my low German since I left southern Manitoba. I know a few other impressive words but that's all I'll amaze you with for now. I can understand low german better than I can speak it for when I was growing up in the Mennonite community in southern Manitoba, I wasn't required to actually speak it very often. I grew up in the village of Schanzenfeld which is about three km's south of Winkler (which is about 16 km's north of the Canadian/US border). It's not a colony, as some of you may think. Mennonites like us don't colonize....unless we were drinking too heavily. Today, if you drive through Schanzenfeld, it is the suburbs of the small city of Winkler.

There is the Mexican Mennonites and then there are us "modern?" Mennonites (for lack of a better word). The Mexican Mennonites are the ones whose ancestors came to Canada on the boat and then travelled to Mexico and then back to Canada. Many of the Mexican Mennonite women still dress in the old-style garb....the duek (kerchief or shawl on the head), simple dresses, socks with heeled shoes or sandals....you've seen them. You may have thought they were an off-shoot of the Hutterites. Most Mennonites dress like anybody else though and speak really good English....most of the time....unless we've been drinking heavily you may hear the word "oba" every now and again.

My family is of Mennonite descent but we weren't very good ones. We didn't do church and that seemed to define being true Mennonite in the Winkler community. Our family was from bad seed I think but I still call myself a Mennonite and we grew up eating plenty of the good food which I still make and we enjoy today.

BBQ'ing Farmer sausage.....from Winkler. Something about southern MB farmer sausage...there's nothing like it, I mean nothing. The farmer sausage sold here doesn't compare. I have to get my MB sausage on the black market. Well, not that bad. I get it "imported" from family members. When I run low, I send out an SOS.

This is Kielke. Also known as homemade pasta. It's not gluten-free by a long shot...more like injected with gluten. Gluten-intolerant people would just die at our house.

And this is Schmontfat. Also known as cream gravy. There's different variations of this stuff. I like mine with lots of pepper, parsley, salt, garlic powder and tabasco sauce. You non-Mennoniters would say it's close to an Alfredo Sauce. This would be another gluten-injected food item.

And there you have it. One heck of a Mennonite meal that we enjoy frequently when we have the right farmer sausage.

Any of my fellow Menno's who read this blog, please correct me if I'm wrong on any of my information. I didn't do extensive research.   ;)