CERES Harvest Festival

 

How quickly the year has passed since I went to last year’s Harvest Festival. I am happy to say that I regularly visit CERES for a variety of reasons, however yesterday I was involved in the Greens stall and it was a lot of fun. It was great to speak to a number of people from overseas and from Germany in particular. I say this because when I lived in Germany many years ago, in Ladenburg, which is a small town on the Neckar river, between Heidelberg and Mannheim, the idea of Harvest Festival (Erntedankfest) was very much a part of life and I remembered that fondly yesterday.

 

Festivals I remember from Ladenburg all had connections with the seasons: the Altstadtfest in September, which we attended, still jetlagged, after arriving, celebrated the “Neuwein”, the first press of the grape harvest. That was a delicious drop, just on the alcoholic side of fermenting grape juice. Went down well with the wonderful “Zwiebelkuchen” , which although at first sight appeared to be a savoury onion tart, really had a sweetness about it which comes from the wonderful baked onions. Then later on, in October, the church was filled with samples of the produce from the surrounding farms. The role of the small farmer (whether or not all farms were owned locally or by multinational enterprises I don’t know) was very much celebrated. Something that is emerging here with the growing popularity of the farmers’ markets. I also remember a wonderful Mass celebrated on the feast of St Hubertus, the patron saint of hunters. The amazing sound of at least ten giant hunting horns filled the church; it was so loud I feared for my small child’s eardrums! Again, a tribute to those hunters whose role it is to be stewards not exploiters of the forests and the creatures that live there.

But back to CERES: it was so interesting talking to people who work to produce fruits, jams, ciders, honey and vegetable oil soaps. It was colourful to see the crafts and sideshows. There was both a sense of local community and magnetism for people passing through Brunswick.