more determined than ever.

It is 23 BELOW zero. Another day in Minnesota. I joke about New Ulm, ‘Welcome, we’re closed’, when I am frustrated with the tourism promotion here, but sometimes I think the whole state could shut down except for the summer season. But then I get up, running to the quick trip for forgotten juice, and see the other brave souls. Welcome to Minnesota, where getting up and keeping your children warm, off to school and every other daily task becomes an extreme sport. Apparently we like it, and we certainly don’t care how we look. I am still wearing my dirndl this morning, but it is an amazing array of getups just to get gas. And do you know, we are still smiling and greeting each other in the same old Minnesota Nice way. Using those muscles for a grin has got to be another way to stay warm. After going out in 11 below last night, the pub crawl was rapidly losing any appeal. Today, I am more determined than ever. I am not alone. The Bohemian is full, to the brim. I have a feeling the t-shirts earned tonight will have a meaning that only those of us living in this weather can understand. Again, congratulations Schell’s, and the extended family of supporters, especially those of us in this God-forsaken climate willing to endure the elements to celebrate. Or will we simply do anything for another layer of clothing?

Tags: dirndl, Schells Beer

LIT UP

Although I have put up outside Christmas lights inside the porch, for 8 years, the idea of getting any on the actual house has been daunting. Driving about town I noticed a darling home with looping lights drizzling their open porch. It may be late a few years, but I can do that. The Bohemian is lit up! We even flash. I’ve not figured the proper timing yet, but it seems fitting the lights should reflect what is inside. What speed is Cheerful?
After the Parade of Lights in New Ulm, Savvy, who is now 2 and a 1/2 asked, ‘Christmas gone Mama?’. Hardly. But it raises the question of how to teach the ’spirit of Christmas lies in your heart’. So after pulling out the odd string of lights from the basement and old boughs of holly and making what we have here work, I am hoping I can offer the same hope to others. I love what I do here and recognize I am a small business owner. Equally I am a steward of sustainability. While acknowledging the impact consumerism has on the economy how can I present choices that are mindful both to my beliefs and my business? So this season, in the spirit of giving, which I can’t do in the volume I’d like, I can help you. I will match any gift certificate, in any amount, with another one here, if you will share the savings with a lonely child, cause, or passion of your choice. Magic? Maybe. Me? I will just keep tweeking the timing on our twinkling lights, and for us, in this house, I think everything will be just right.

Hey You Barefoot and Crazy

Several years ago in Bend, Oregon, on a serendipitous cast party, some silly naked Barbies joined our table, spilling from my pockets, leftover gifts I had spray painted for my kit kat girls in Cabaret. Some kid was playing the joint. I was younger then, but still feeling old and wise, I quoted Disney’s Hercules to a boy who didn’t need to hear it. I know a good band when I see one, “Indoor plumbing, you’re gonna be big” I said to Jack Ingram. Never did heard ‘Barbie Doll’ on the radio, but once in a while, lately, I would recognize that voice and delivery. Fifth row center wasn’t as good as sharing a beer, and now that I think of it, I should have bought him a Schell’s last Saturday in Mankato, but, well, he’s big. Some things don’t get better than this. Charlie and I are digging him and who ever else pops up on my Pandora “Jack Ingram Plays The Bohemian Honkey Tonk” and that, I had programed before we got our tickets last weekend. i am thinking George’s could be a pretty cool venue, next time.

A Most Recent Wanda Gag Work

A viewing of a recently donated painting by Wanda Gag was unveiled at The Bohemian. It will hang, after some restoration, at the Gag House, but was fittingly first revealed here. Savannah, our darling, shares Grandparents with Wanda. There are four greats for baby Savvy, with Wanda not knowing them either. Grandma Theresia died 5 years after Wanda’s birth and Grandpa Georg died years before while building a well on his newly purchased plot in the Immelberg, a wooded hill on the southern edge of New Ulm reminding many of the Bohmerwald from where they came. The German Bohemians remain an unarticulated mix of border people sharing language with Germany, a cultural relationship with the Czech region and politics from the Austrian Empire. Today the ancestry continues to be reflected in a strong sense of family and civic responsibility and artistic and musical interests. My own great great grandparents had an Inn in Bohemia, an interesting outcome for me: finding all roads lead to home, going back farther than my own hometown, and perhaps explaining how an unrelated girl was impersonating an artist back in her own college days. Wanda created this piece while in art school in Mpls. It has been graciously donated by the Soulen-Johnson family. http://www.nujournal.com/page/content.detail/id/509499.html

Hopkins Honda Suggests a Fall Drive to New Ulm

Can’t Make It To Munich? Don’t Worry – Oktoberfest Is in Minnesota, too!
Celebrate autumn and German culture in New Ulm.

Think you need to travel across the Atlantic just to experience Oktoberfest? Think again. If you can find your way to New Ulm, Minnesota, you’ll discover a festival just as authentic and spirited as the real German tradition.

An annual event now in its 28th year, New Ulm’s Oktoberfest celebrates the German heritage of the area and offers countless activities all weekend long, from trolley rides to genuine German bands.

The 2009 New Ulm Oktoberfest will be held October 2-3 and 9-10 in downtown New Ulm. For a great introduction to the community, check out local attractions like the Brown County Museum, the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, Morgan Creek Vineyards and August Schell’s Brewery. From Noon to 5:00 P.M., you can take a horse-drawn trolley ride around famous streets and landmarks. For the perfect weekend outing, don’t miss the German-American Day Parade on October 3 at 11:00 A.M.!

Known for its endless list of entertainment, New Ulm’s Oktoberfest returns this year with a wide range of performers and talents. The famous Concord Singers honor New Ulm’s “Quintet of Singing Pioneers” who settled in the area around 1860. Several German brass bands will also keep you dancing all weekend – especially when they play the famous polkas.

If for no other reason, experience Oktoberfest just for the sake of your taste buds. Serving all the classics from brats to sauerkraut, food vendors offer old favorites, as well as new bites from different regions of Germany (don’t forget to try some Gnome-made Fudge!). Of course, how could an Oktoberfest be authentic without beer? From 11:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. every day, the Beer Wagon will supply you with bona fide German drinks. Featuring specialty beers from August Schell’s, the festival’s servers will be able to tell you a few secrets of the trade. If you want to know more, just take an onsite tour of the brewery!

Shoppers at New Ulm’s annual Oktoberfest always walk away with a few treasures. From collectible German dolls to traditional costumes, there’s something for everyone – including many souvenirs straight from Germany!

There’s no better way to end your Oktoberfest weekend than with dinner at Otto’s Feirerhaus & Bierstube restaurant. Always on the menu are Otto’s award-winning Green Mill Pizza and barbequed ribs that were voted the “Best Ribs in southern Minnesota.” Other favorites include Jagerschnitzle, Bavarian Beef Stew and the delicious Hasenpheffer. Need to try it all? Get a taste of everything with specialty sampler plates like the Sausage Sampler. As they say in Germany, “guten appetit!”

Whether you have German roots or just enjoy the rich history and tradition of the culture, New Ulm’s Oktoberfest is a wonderful way to ring in the autumn season. With delicious food, tasty beer and enthusiastic entertainers, it’s no wonder that New Ulm calls itself the “City of Festivals.” So grab your favorite beer mug and bis bald (translation: see you soon)!

For more information, visit www.newulmoktoberfest.com.

Published by Hopkins Honda

Raining and Pouring

Actually it is wonderful weather in New Ulm and predicting continued warmth and sunshine through our grand Hermann weekend. It is raining and pouring media however. After being nominated for a customer service support award a week ago, today’s food column featured The Bohemian Hoppel Poppel by food writer Wendy Monro and her Simply Food in The New Ulm Journal. I am fondly being ‘reminded’ as to why I do what I do, thank you Wendy, It is Simply Hospitality. The Polls are still open for the support awards at www.supportawards.org. I and The Bohemian can be found under Hospitality. For me, I am Simply Grateful.

Migration

Even though birding and bed and breakfasts go hand in hand, this migration is about my blog. I will now be posting through my website www.the-bohemian.com. Heavens, the site is like owning a virtual B&B, meaning I am cleaning house from the front door to the back. I find the discovery exciting. There isn’t an element of work to be done here that I don’t enjoy, but I do find there is not enough time to do it all, so any help is appreciated, in real life I find relief, when busy, with the college students now back in town. In this new virtual ‘job’ of keeping the website in best form, just like the gardens and the house, I have Corey Ganser through Mind Touch to offer me the best support, virtual staff! Which kinda makes up for me losing my dear Olivia to her first year of college. Olivia Augustin had been with me for four years, with nary a compliant battling my mishaps. Here she is in Mexico with her acute interest in bathrooms, thanks to her fine work at The Bohemian! I will miss her!

Don’t Cook Like I Do.

For years I have said I am going to have a cooking show and call it ‘Don’t Cook Like I Do’. After several attempts of burning down the kitchen and a variety of interesting saves, I pretended tonight was episode one. My Mother gives me these saucy little magazines called everyday food (’great food fast from Martha Stewart’). I actually read them occasionally along with another one she brings over called Cookie which is about children. Both rags are sufficiently filled with enough hints and things I should have to make me feel entirely inadequate. So with the page torn out for Mediterranean Chicken Packets from an inspiring Tennessee reader named Joanna Douglas, I added the ingredients to my never ending grocery list. We are sleep deprived here. Darling Savannah, now banned from chocolate, was up until, well, we lost track at 4:30 am. I simply did not notice I had not picked up olives, or artichoke hearts (being Abby’s favorite they were on the list twice) until I began cooking tonight’s meal. It was then that I saw it was parchment paper that was called for not phyllo dough, which I had remembered to take out of the freezer. Now one thing that happens around here is Charlie likes to grill, and it is slick when he does a bunch of everything cause then I use that the rest of the week. So I put the torn chicken on several phyllo sheets I had brushed with olive oil, added garden tomatoes and feta cheese, the one ingredient originally called for beside the chicken. And, feeling particularly inspired by my own self, simply because I no longer cared, I threw some asparagus on top and sprinkled it with salt, pepper, and a wee bit more olive oil. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. These pockets even fit the Heart of New Ulm nutrition address at the ladies night out last week.

Making Al Franken Smile

Bumped into Minnesota’s State Senator last night at a very well attended Women’s Night Out Expo sponsored by Frandson Bank highlighting the Heart of New Ulm agenda. Just as I’m thinking, we’ve turned another corner, I did, and felt like I had, literally, run into an old friend. You know that feeling when you see a familiar face. “Hey, Hi!” oh, like that was Al Franken, oh, and he’s chuckling. But really, Ramona and I had a great table sharing what the New Ulm Bed and Breakfasts have to offer, yes, *even* for locals. We are always driving our efforts to turn that corner. So, costume therapy works again, we were in our jammies cause we go the extra mile!

Bobbi’s Most Curious Minnesota

Well, I finally made an escape from The Bohemian Bed and Breakfast, besides to the farmers market or sausage shop and I had my copy of Minnesota Curiosities in hand! Abby began her 2 week immersion into German Culture at Concordia Language Villages and Charlie and I relinqueshed the baby to siblings and cousins for a couple day’s jaunt to the North Woods. There were loons and rides on Lake Beltrami and wonderful sculptures in Bemidji but the quest was seeing all the ‘quirky characters, roadside oddities and other offbeat stuff’ touted by Russ Ringsak and Denise Remick in their delightfully written book. Nobody can sass it better than those two so I am just going to list what fun can be had on the road from New Ulm to Bemidji and back, more in order of the book, rather than our travels. World’s Largest Ball of Twine, Darwin. Glockenspiel and Hermann the German, New Ulm (starting point counts!). W.W. Mayo House, Le Sueur. Paul Bunyan AND Fabulous Bob the voodoo priest, Akeley. Don’t forget a stop at the silo for ice cream, I don’t know how this was missed! Treasure City, Royalton. Which by far was my least favorite, and feeling it missed the boat even if boasting a pirate and oodles of seashells is odd in Minnesota. The eelpout festival is in Feb but at least I’ve driven through Walker and heard some tales causing me to become quite certain that the eelpout is exactly what a lakemaid is on any day but the summer soltise, which explains why she is so elusive.