August 2003 - Nr. 8
Dick reports...
Something to look forward to in August…
…will be Hamilton’s 6th annual "Mustard Festival" on the 29th, 30th & 31st of August, at King and Ferguson. The Black Forest Inn is at the corner – you cannot miss it! It is also an opportunity to visit Gabi and Wolfgang Schön, the proprietors of the Inn, and check out the variety of their fabulous menu.
This Labour Day Weekend will feature great food, fun and entertainment by artisans and crafters as well as a number of well-known bands such as the Toronto All Star Jazz Big Band; Bob Brattina and the Balkan Strings; Jazz Mass with Bart Nameth; Tyler Yarema & His Rhythm and much more.
The star of the event is of course "mustard". It will be available for tasting in various locations along the street and will range from "light" to "holy smoke, that’s hot"!
Carabram 2003
At
the Hansa Haus in Brampton great efforts had been made to make the potential
visitors welcome, well treated, well entertained and well fed.
Unfortunately the cool weather kept many of them away – especially during the day. The evenings were more successful and the great hall was well filled.
The Harmonie Brass Show Band did its usual best to keep the visitors entertained, the food choices were excellent and an extra bar – set up in the hall – enjoyed brisk attendance.
No
beer-tent this year but 16 picnic tables on the patio, plus a full bar
service, invited those that wanted to enjoy a smoke with their beer or
"Schnapps" out in the fresh air. Of course in the first two days the air was
a little too fresh and the patio did not enjoy the crowds that were expected
in the afternoons.
Upstairs
in the Hansa Stube a "Cultural Display" was set up and created a lot of
interest with a variety of typical German items on display – including
"Rosenthal Chin
a"
– and some ‘Christmassy’ decorations.
I did not get a chance to visit any of the other pavilions but I noticed that there were not many people on the bus that serviced the various pavilions. Of course the weather may have had something to do with it also.
Saturday
evening the ‘Judges’, who evaluated the various pavilions, paid the club a
visit and were apparently quite favourable impressed by the effort the club
has extended to make this a successful event. However they did not award any
prize to the club. Consensus was that the club broke even, financially.
Maybe next year will be even better.
Picnic at the winery
Konzelmann’s
invitation - for the mostly German community - to join him and his family at
the estate winery for a picnic with good wine, good food, and good music was
an unmitigated success. Close to 500 people followed the invitation. Even
the weather played along, without a cloud in the sky and only a slight
comfortable breeze. "Not once did we have a bad day on our picnic for the
past eleven years" Herbert Konzelmann proudly said as he grinned from ear to
ear.
In his welcoming address Herbert reiterated some of the family history and his great-grandfather Friedrich and the fact that the winery goes back to 1521 – on his mother’s side, how he built up the winery in Germany to 380,000 litres when he took over the family business and winery in 1958 and transferred the winery to Canada in 1984.
Herbert graduated from the famous "Staatliche Weinbauschule Weinsberg" in Germany, after four years of studies in viticulture, winemaking and business practices.
Since the winery’s first beginnings in Canada, Herbert has grown and expanded the Estate to include over 83 acres of vineyards, producing over 450,000 bottles of VQA quality wine each year - including some of his award-winning Icewine. And that is another interesting story!
Icewine is a rare and exquisite product made from grapes naturally frozen on the vine at minus 10º Celsius. This rich, white dessert wine of luscious sweetness has the distinct character of tropical fruit. It was first discovered – by accident – in Germany when peasant farmers in Franconia where hit by a sudden, unexpected frost in the winter of 1794. Instead of despairing of their frozen grapes, they went ahead and made wine. The result was a small quantity of honey-sweet nectar with balancing acidity that was unlike anything they had ever produced. The wine named "Eiswein" was considered a treasure, but with the moderate German climate, perfect conditions for making this wine occurred only in very cold winters. The Canadian climate however is perfect for producing Ice-wine and Konzelmann Winery produce Gold Medal winning Ice-wine that consistently wins in national and international competitions each year.
Understandably none of it was served at the picnic, but it was available at the boutique. However a selected variety of Konzelmann’s delicious wines were served at the picnic and greatly enjoyed by the guests.
While
the "Nu-Tones" entertained with wonderful music - this year outside of the
large tent, Lein’s Catering Service did a fantastic job of looking after the
inner man (or "person"?) as they have on past occasions at this venue.
Burgenländer Picnic
Many
of the - about 1000 - visitors to the annual "Anna Picknick" – at the
"Evening Bell" park - were not from the "Burgenland", in Austria, although
Kitcheners and Toronto’s Danube Swabians, Burlington’s Continental Austrian
Club had sent large delegations. Even Paul Schneider and the "Radio Herz"
gang
attended with about 40 visitors. All were welcome and invited to enjoy the
warm hospitality of the host club, including our old friend Erwin Huber, who
had come from Germany at this time especially to be able to attend this
event.
This get-together is always staged on an available weekend close to "Anna Day" – in honour of St. Anna, the traditional name of the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary – which is the 26th of July.
St. Anna (from the Hebrew Hannah = grace) is the patroness of women in labour, sterility, poverty, grandparents and miners and is also one of the most popular saints of the Latin Church.
After the traditional church service at 11:00 a.m., celebrated by Pater Rudi Oberle from the St. Patricks Church in Toronto - with over 150 people in attendance, kitchen and bar were opened and judging by the line-ups, this was something almost everyone had been waiting for.
This
was followed by the ‘official’ opening with national anthems and welcoming
addresses by Otto Novak, president of the club; Wendelin Ettmeyer,
Ambassador and Karl Schmidt, Trade Commissioner, from Austria.
A few sprinkles of rain – on and off – did nothing to keep the guests from enjoying the wonderful food, the fabulous "Gösser" beer and the dancing to the great variety of treasured and well-loved tunes by the Golden Keys, from Kitchener.
The younger generations also had a wonderful time in the pool – despite the rain – plus much enjoyed other available pastimes.
Kudos are of course in order for the many volunteers that slaved over hot stoves in the cookhouse, kitchen and the bar plus performing other tasks and without whom this event wouldn’t have been the success that it was.
The
ladies had also baked numerous delicious cookies and other pastries that
were offered to the guests at a nominal price for dessert. All the proceeds
– after expenses – go to charity.
Homeboy does well at Molson Indy!
Exciting as always, especially on this July 13th Sunday, it was race-day at the EX for over 73,000 fans. At a blistering average speed of about 158 km/hr and an almost 5 seconds victory margin, Paul Tracy, from West Hill, Ontario, won the 18th Molson Indy.
(Of course he repeated this performance at the Molson Indy in Vancouver’s 1.781-mile road course at Concord Pacific Place, two weeks later. But this is another story!)
Paul Tracy was probably motivated be the fact that this was the last chance for the Players team to win the Molson Indy in Toronto since the tobacco brand – closely identified with the sport - announced that this would be its final season because of federal anti-tobacco legislation.
"It’s a sad day for everyone on the team and everyone in Canada" he said. "It is a great day for Canada for me to win here today. It is the best win of my whole career," he concluded.
This Team Player’s driver dominated the field, opening up with an unheard-of 33.4 second lead before a caution flag on the 78th lap allowed the rest of the field to catch up a little.
Tracy initially got off to a good start, but two yellow flags in the beginning of the race gave the rest of the field some undeserved confidence – however, after the second caution was lifted our boy went to work in earnest. He was nearly a ‘second-a-lap’ faster in his Ford Cosworth-Lola, than the field in the beginning, which enabled him to open a six-second lead by the 12th lap.
The only daunting moment for Paul Tracy came on the 91st lap when he missed a gear-shift on the Lake Shore straightaway and stalled his engine just before the third turn. He got it restarted, avoided the tire barriers and cruised to the 23rd win in his career on the Championship Auto Racing Teams circuit, the most wins among active Championship Car drivers.
Michel Jourdain - followed by Bruno "Junky" Junqueira in third place - won second place, this year. There is a lot more info on the Internet for those of you who are interested.
As always,
Dick Altermann
Comments to: dick@echoworld.com
