Die besten Radieserl der Welt - Geschichten_en_v3

The Best Radishes in the World

In May, when the first radishes appeared, we children were always incredibly excited! Every day we would look to see how much of the thick, red root showed above the ground. The radishes grew in a special cold frame that Dad and Mom had built. The cold frame was made from old plastic fertilizer sacks that had been ironed together. During the entire year, fertilizer sacks were saved for this purpose. At that time, virtually nothing was thrown away. Somehow, everything was used time and again.The fertilizer sacks were made of thick plastic. These were cut into manageable strips with an old tailor's shear and ironed back together into a new shape. The result was a sheet of plastic made of many small parts. An old newspaper was placed under the iron to keep the plastic from sticking to it. There was an art to setting the temperature correctly. If the iron was too hot, it melted the plastic and caused unwanted grooves. If it was too cold, the plastic strips would not stick together. If the iron remained too long on one spot, there was smoke and a hole was burned. If you went too fast, the plastic didn't melt together.

My father built a small frame of wooden slats and nailed the freshly ironed plastic tarp to the frame with ''Dexnägel.'' These were special nails with a wide head suitable for perfectly securing burlap, plastic or tar-paper to wood. The cover for the cold frame was custom built. It was placed at an angle on the frame. A top made of glass would have been too fragile, thus easily broken by the pets and kids. The whole cold frame was about 1.5 m long and 0.9 m deep. After the radishes were harvested, lettuce was planted in the cold frame. Anyway, everything needed to cost little to nothing. Other than the ''Drexnägel,'' it was made entirely out of recycled materials, and placed directly on the ground. After the first "Maiandacht" (special church service) of the month of May, the first of the radishes were pulled and rinsed off with a garden hose.

I have fond memories of those wonderful evenings. The birds sang particularly loudly in the spring and the air was scented with lilacs. Mom and Dad made sandwiches and we had the first radishes with salt on bread and butter. There was ''Orangengracherl.'' That was a carbonated soda that came in resealable bottles. The ''Gracherl'' hissed and bubbled when we opened it. A large loaf of bread was cut into thin slices, and the radishes were glued on with thickly spread butter (even thicker than a slice of meatloaf) so they would stay put. Mom also loved to eat chives with it. Everything was eaten with salt, pepper and lots of enjoyment!

I loved those evenings with my parents. Unfortunately, there were far too few of them, because, in addition to farming, my father also worked a daily shift at the dairy, even on Saturday and Sunday. The cows gave milk every day, and yes, it had to be processed immediately. Mam was also somehow always busy. Either she was in the barn or in the fields and she also cooked for the whole family. That made our snack times together all the more valuable. We always had the feeling that we had really earned it and that it was very healthy. No one thought of obesity or of calories or high cholesterol levels. We ate and we enjoyed it!


Written down on September 12, 2012 by Eleanore Hartl-Grötsch, born Hartl (*1960), Munich
Translation by Maximilian Grötsch and Peggy Chong

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