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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Kraut Is Flavor Of This Festival

FOR THE RECORD (October 11, 1995): Not all Mennonites dress in a distinctively plain, nonmodern manner, as was implied in Tuesday’s Being There column.

You’ve never seen so many people eating sauerkraut.

Old couples eating sauerkraut. Toddlers eating sauerkraut. All God’s children, it seemed, were eating sauerkraut.

But there was more to the annual Mennonite Country Auction Saturday than hundreds of gobbled-up servings of fermented cabbage. There was sausage. You’ve never seen so many people eating sausage.

And, of course, there was the auction itself. Held on the grounds surrounding the out-in-the-middle-of-wheat-fields Menno Mennonite Church 20 miles west of Ritzville, the sale of donated quilts and other items raises money for international relief projects.

But well before the actual auction was to start at noon, the unpaved parking areas had filled and last year’s attendance record - 2,400 - seemed very much in jeopardy.

It was a sunny fall morning and there were lots of choices. You could watch flour being ground, cider being pressed or apple butter being stirred in a wood-fired vat.

You could buy craft knickknacks or handmade jewelry. You could go for mugs or T-shirts adorned with the Mennonite Central Committee’s half-cross/half-dove logo. You could buy apple pies.

“The bulk sausage and wheat weaving sell out fast,” a woman’s voice announced over a loudspeaker. A glance at the lines indicated that the warning was not just hype.

Several men wore caps that said “You can always tell a German, but you can’t tell him much.”

There was an espresso stand, but the line was nothing compared to the sauerkraut scene.

Judging from the various “Hard Rock Cafe” shirts and “No Fear” caps, most in attendance were not Mennonites, despite the fact that the Adams County sale is a statewide project for the sect’s churches.

But there were enough families attired in the signature clothing - women with black scarves over the head, et cetera - to remind everyone that this wasn’t just another rural fair.

Curious children on different sides of the cultural divide occasionally stared at one another. And if you watched and waited long enough, you sometimes saw tentative smiles.

A low-key booth stocked with pamphlets and charts outlining Mennonite history and the church’s charitable undertakings was not far from the serving lines. An onlooker who didn’t know better might have figured all the tracts said one thing.

Go get some kraut.

, DataTimes MEMO: Being There is a weekly feature that visits gatherings in the Inland Northwest.

Being There is a weekly feature that visits gatherings in the Inland Northwest.