Learning the Culture

This weekend the boys got to learn about their culture by having hands on training with making sausage and Kolache rolls with few Czech words thrown in to made keep it real.

Friday, using Brian & Beau's deer and some pork, we made sausage. It's always a family event when we do this, and we wouldn't have it any other way. . more hands to turn the sausage stuffer. :) They ground the deer and some pork up, then mixed it together and seasoned it. Lucky for me this part was done while I was still at work, but there was still plenty to do once I got there. After seasoning it, you have to test it and when it is just right, the 'fun' begins - we do keep some up for pan sausage and the rests is stuffed into casings for the sausage. This entails someone turning the old time grinder/stuffer and feeding the meat into it, someone guiding it as it comes out, someone cutting it to the right length and tying it, and putting it on the sticks to hang. We then let it hang over night, and on Saturday we gathered up old rotten wood and built a fire in a small container to smoke it, then we let it hang a little more. And on Sunday we cut all the strings off, wipe the sausage off and vacuum sealed it. We made a total of 80 links of sausage, about 22 bags of pan sausage, and 14 strips of jerky.

Also on Saturday mom & Diane decide to mix up a batch of Kolache dough to make some cream cheese and poppy seed rolls. The dough was rising when we got there, but it wasn't long before it was time to mix it down again then waited while it rose again. Mom then let the boys help her roll it out, grease the pans, taste the fillings and fill them with the yummy fillings. There was a little left with each batch, so she let the boys make their very own - they rolled it out, put the filling in, rolled it together, and put it in the pan to bake, then that evening we all got to try them.

I loved having the boys involved in these making the things that have been passed down from generations and makings memories right along with good food.

While making the sausage on Friday, my brother, sisters and I talked about when we were younger and did these things with our grandparents. . . those were the days. I can only hope that my boys get to pass on our family cultures someday.