... this time it was Michael Back, who dropped by on the off chance. Mr Back held a clay seminar as part of the RHYZOM workshop in Höfen in June. He returned some hand made clay tiles that were made during the workshops and which he he had fired for free at the historic clay factory at the open air museum in Bad Windsheim. He came in for a drink and DJ talked to him about his pottery A levels and his old pottery tutor in Lancaster. We also talked a bit about plans for the Höfer Waren 2010 and the idea to develop a new product that combines fruit and clay. He's an incredibly nice and knowledgeable man and offered to stay involved further. He left with a nice bottle of red Frankonian wine for now, and watch this space for some new clay product development.

Posted September 16, 2010 20:45 by Kathrin Böhm

I asked Andi in passing on the street at around lunch time today, if he knew any places for picking elderberries (see myambition below to get some schnaps out of some fruit this autumn). Three hours later the door bell rings, and it was Rosi - Andi's wife - who had come to our house, to tell me that Andi just rang her from his mobile, to let me know that there were ripe elderberries near where he was working that afternoon (apologies for very long german-style sentences..). And that I have to pick them today, because tomorrow by 8am the bushes might be gone, because the path will be dug up as part of the land rationalisation scheme that's going on all around the village (after it had been under negotiation for 17 years). We went, and Andi was still there. He offered to cut the bushes down so it would be easier to pick the berries, but I didn't think that was necessary. So we picked three buckets before it'll all be gone tomorrow.

Posted September 16, 2010 20:08 by Kathrin Böhm

It had never occured to me until today, that my ambition to make some of my own schnaps in Höfen might be cut short by the fact that there is simply not enough fruit. A very long and very cold spring, and a cold and wet summer mean that there isn't any of the surplus fruit that normally fuels local wine and schnaps production: apples, pears, plums.

After a walk around the fields I can report that there are luckily some trees with fruit, and it's now a matter of who owns them and if they harvest them, in order to rescue my schnaps plans. Otherwise I will have to divert to elderflower and rosehip, which are both classified " specialist" schnaps - probably because it's incredibly timeconsuming business - which means my Schnaps would indeed be for very special occasions only.

Posted September 2, 2010 20:07 by Kathrin Böhm