C2B—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 24,1980
BY CURT HAULER
BERLIN, WEST GER
MANY Cucumbers ex
plain a number of the dif
ferences an American
visitor notices upon arrival
in Germany.
The milk’s not the same as
at home, and the whole
agricultural system is a bit
unique.
But the people are
uniformly wonderful and
quite patient with an
American whose German
accent is more Spanish
sounding than German.
The cucumbers m Ger
many, and throughout
northern Europe, tend to be
giants by U.S. standards.
They run 16 to 18 inches long,
some pushing two feet.
Those cucumbers are
uniformly skinny, certainly
no more than two or three
mches in diameter.
Compare that to the
typical American pickle and
you’ll soon see why a visitor
may suspect the vegetable
merchants are selling green
spaghetti.
The cucumbers are
practical smce every slice is
nearly uniform m size. And
the smaller size is con
venient for salads
The cucumbers we grow
are every bit as tasty as
theirs. In a salad it would be
impossible to tell the dif
ference.
Cucumbers are like many
things in German life:
smaller, more compact, and
quite practical.
Milk for the supermarket
is packaged m one liter
cartons—about the volume
m a U .S. quart. Gut again the
packaging is quite different.
The German milk bottle
looks more like a cake mix
box than the traditional
pointed-top milk carton the
American shopper is used to
looking for.
Getting the milk carton
open is a challenge It
Germany:
requires a pair of scissors
and a steady hand to assure
none of the liquid is sloshed
out.
Inside, too, there are some
differences.
It’s not the taste which is
unique ... after all, many of
our best cows are of German
ancestry.
Our German friends
asssured us they could leave
their milk cartons on the
table for as long as three
days at room temperature
without danger of the milk
spoiling.
In the U.S., the University
of Maryland has had some
preliminary publicity on a
process which is supposed to
land of 18-inch cucumbers
keep milk from spoiling at
room temperature.
But the Germans seem to
have it today. We had
several different con
versations on the subject and
the Germans assured that
the process was not the
typical homogimzed nor
pasturized product U.S.
stores sell.
The process allows milk to
stay on the table without
turning bad. It’s a big help
for forgetful homemakers;
saves space in the tiny
European sized
refrigerators; and, since
milk on the table is easy to
grab, makes milk more
available to children looking
for a quick drink.
Germans are only just
discovering sweet com as a
vegetable.
Until recently, com was
for cattle and hogs and no
self-respecting German
homemaker would put such
a dish before the family.
Today, Germans say, it is
more common for com to be
served as a vegetable along
with a whole host of other
vegetables Americans would
consider common.
Germans are a great ,
nation of gardeners. Even in
the large cities like Berlin,
vast tracts are given over to
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personal gardens. Called
Schreiber gardens, after the
man who proposed them,
they are a status symbol for
the upper-middle class
Berliner.
Schreiber, writing in the
early 1900 s, said it is im
portant for city dwellers to
have close contact with the
soil. To that end, he proposed
a system whereby any ur
banite could hate a garden
of his own.
The Schreiber gardens are
tiny plots, no more than 25
yards square on the average,
each with a small one or two
ni
room house. The Germans
come out to their summer
home on weekends, grow
dwarf fruit trees, garden
vegetables, and flowers.
It keeps the city in touch
with agriculture and
provides a healthy
recreation.
One of the growing con
flicts in Berlin is over the
loss of the garden areas to
development. The Berliners
like their plots, and even
though they inevitably will
lose them, they cherish the
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