Good morning everyone. As I am once more across the country- here is my first guest from The Fellowship: Gerlinde. We are beginning our international small farm tour in Germany. She writes, cooks and travels over at her blog The Sunny Cove. 
I am tickled to be asked to post here, as The Kitchengarden has become one of my favorite blogs. Reading about Cecilia’s life on her farm reconnects me with my childhood on our family farm in the middle of Germany. It brings back memories that have been pushed aside by living in the United States for so many years. During those years, I went home to Germany to visit my parents and the rest of my family as often as I could. Once I retired from teaching, and my mom’s health started to fail, my visits became more frequent. Last year, I must have spent three and a half months in Germany.
Our farm has been in the family for generations. When my dad married my mom, he took over the farm from my maternal grandfather. We had a dairy, as well as pigs, chickens, geese and other farm animals. As a farmer, my father grew wheat, sugar beets and potatoes. The beets were delivered to the nearby factory to be made into sugar, and the milk went to to a local creamery. I have early childhood memories of sitting on a tractor with my dad and selling eggs with my grandfather to the local store. As a child, we often played in the village and would escape to the forest when the adults had chores for us. Life was free and full of adventures.
When I was 15, I went to boarding school for a better educatIon. As my father got older, the hard work took a toll on his body and he had to quit farming at the age of 55. My brother had to find another way to make a living because farming in Germany was no longer profitable. So, he became a hobby farmer. To this day, he raises sheep and any stray animals that come his way. The picture shows him with some orphaned wild pigs that he raised until they were released back into the forest. My nephew’s wife brought home a rescue goat named Lenin and some tame geese for her children. She also has two horses.
In our village, the era of the self-sustainable farm is over. There is still one farmer who farms his land with large machines. And there is only one dairy left. Instead of growing their own food, most people go the supermarket. My mother’s beautiful vegetable garden has become grazing land for the sheep and horses. Maybe one day, the old way of living off the land will return. The neighboring villages have a few smaller farms that sell their produce at the local farmer’s market. Some have turned old barns into cafes. Homemade sausages and cheeses are sold on roadside stands. There will always be people like Cecilia all over the world who will find alternatives to large scale farming
Cecilia asked me to post a recipe for potato pancakes. You can find the recipe on my blog here
The Kitchen's Garden 
89 responses to “Gerlinde”
Great guest post, Gerlinde! My family is also from Germany, and my mother grew up on a farm near the Baltic Sea. As you mentioned, the days of farming your own land for a living are clearly over, but we still enjoy the opportunity to visit the land there from time to time.
The Baltic Sea is such a beautiful area
Wild pigs! How adorable! Did they adapt to being wild animals again? Pigs are so intelligent I wondered what the process is to de-habituate them.
My brother released them back into a forest and he said he never saw them agin. That must be a good sign.
Oh, that is good!
How wonderful to wake up in California and walk with The Fellowship around a wee farm in Germany. I honestly still think there is hope for little farms all over the world. If i can do a tiny land grab and feed myself and my family I KNOW there must be many people out there who might do the same. It can be done. You never know what the next generation can achieve. Thank you so much Gerlinde for this lovely story, and your pictures. it has been a real pleasure to host you today. celi
Thanks Celi, I hope you’re having a good time in California and thank you for letting me share my childhood home.
There are plenty of veggie growing and lamb, pig and chook holding around our farm in Southwest France. All is not gone here. They keep on keeping on. Wonderful to see. I can count on two hands “retired” farmers in their seventies an eighties still working the land because they love it. You can’t stop them.
I think France is able to preserve the old way of farming because they are devoted to their cuisine.
Absolutely stunning photos. It’s incredibly sad to read about the vanishing farms in Germany. Even no more vegetable gardens. Hopefully this will reverse itself one day and the next generation will rediscover the goodness of garden grown produce.
I hope so too
Gerlinde, it is so very nice to see your post about Germany and where you grew up. I am now racing over to read about your potato pancakes!
I hope you like them
What a lovely post and lovely photos! Thanks so much for sharing your heritage with all of us.
Thank you
Hello Gerlinde, we live in northern CAlifornia. What beautiful pics, love seeing the German countryside. Those pigs are so cute. My husband’s grandfather and family are from Germany. Mine from Italy. Visiting Europe is on our bucket list. Thanks so much for sharing. Hope Cecilia is having fun, too. Thanks for the recipe and I will come visit your blog. Blessings.
I hope Cecilia is enjoying the warm weather we have here in California.
Have you consultation on schnitzel? We are mad about schnitzel. Great for kids, quick, easy, pound meat …. what’s not to love? I’m pounding blind over here. any tips?
I will post the recipe for Schnitzel in a couple of days. I have small cutting boards and dull knives , kids love to help…. or have them stuff some celery with peanut butter and decorate with raisins for snacks.
Ants on a log! I forgot about those. Peanut butter is hard to find and expensive when you do. So, I make it in my blender 🙂
How about Nutella or cheese
Lovely post. Many of us connected via The Farmy are also connected by farming family links. I too have great memories of a childhood farm, my grandparents’, which is now owned by a lovely woman who rescues stray animals! I like to support farmers-growers-producers so love markets, independent local shops, etc. Your photos were wonderful, I have Prussian ancestry from my Mum’s family, and the G.O.’s great grandmother was German 🙂
It is so much fun connecting via The Farmy . I hope that one day our farm and village comes back to life with animals and farming.
Hey Gerlinde … wonderful to read about your life in Germany. I do so hope that the old way of living off the land may return 🙂 Thank you for sharing …
I hope so too
Gerlinde, your photos brought back memories of the time I lived and worked in Wiesbaden during the early 70s! Potato pancakes sound interesting. I am on my way to check them out!
Wiesbaden is a very nice town.
Thank you for sharing your childhood memories of life in Germany Gerlinde, it was so refreshing! Hopefully more people will get back to living and working their own small farms like Celi has – and making it work! Yes, it’s hard work but the self-satisfaction must be huge.
Your photos reminded me of my own childhood when I lived in Germany for two years in Sennelager, near Paderborn (my father was a soldier in the British Army at the time). I went to school there and loved the area, so pretty and surrounded by countryside and forests – a child’s wonderland!
My village is not far from Paderborn.
Hi, Gerlinde! Thank you for a fascinating peak into your life in Germany. Of course, the first photo knocks me out. And your home so charming. I love that little goat too. Who are the young women in that photo? Your brother’s such a good guy for taking in strays! I’m wondering what and where you taught. Was this in California?
I have such fond memories of visiting Germany. Beautiful country. I’m not much of a cook. I use the excuse that I’m Irish, which of course, enrages Irish women. But with a diabetic husband, everything is plain plain plain. Little impetus to cook. But I’m so tempted to try potato pancakes! Thank you for sharing so much of your life, and please accept my very belated condolences in the loss of your Mom.
That little goat’s name is Lenin and the girls are from the village. I worked in a school for handicapped children in Germany and taught first grade In California. I loved it.
That little goat is called Lenin and the girls are from the village. I worked with handicapped children in Germany and taught first grade in California. I loved it.
Illuminating story and great photos: wonderful to get to know you a little better! Seemingly being kind’of a grossmutter to the farmy community I have to admit having lived some five years in Germany after WWII but even further south than Wiesbaden 🙂 ! Ere my parents migrated to Australia I lived both in Freudenstadt in Schwarzwald and then three years in a US Refugee Camp in idyllic Geislingen/Steige near Ulm or Stuttgart whichever way one wanted to travel . . . for parents a difficult time, for children a wonderland!! Thank you for your story . . . so, so enjoyed!!
It is wonderful to meet all the different people in this blog. There are so many stories to tell.
Beautiful photography! Thank you for the story!