Storming the Castle: just another summer's day

Be sure to scroll down for more photos and enlightenment

Burg Lichtenberg is a cozy little castle, high on a hill overlooking the city of Kusel.  Don’t worry if you haven’t seen it yet.  It’ been standing guard over the valley since 1200 and is not likely to disappear soon.

The neat thing about Lichtenberg is that it’s useful, which is more than you can say for most things built in 1200.  From spring through fall there are festivals.  Also a restaurant.  Also a youth hostel.  No end to the possibilities.

Last weekend was an herb fest, complete with garden ornaments, plants for sale, the obligatory beer and wurst, plus guided herb tours around the castle walls and an explanatory visit to the castle’s own herb garden.

I forget to mention the three-piece band, with middle aged musicians playing and singing John Denver favorites in German and English. Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. ( his real name) translates well, or at least the emotions do.  Everyone can understand the yearning to go home to West by-god Virginia, or Rocky Mountain High…speaking of herbs.

I learned a few things during the semi-walk around the castle walls.  Camille tea comes from little, white, daisy-like flowers, which I would have known had I paid more attention to the picture on the packaging.  Supposedly, you can also brew a strong batch and use it to heal skin ailments.  I recommend letting it cool first, but hey, you’re your own boss.

The lady who led us around was the college professor who knew too much for our own good.  Apparently, leaving any tidbit out would have been a sin against all of academia.  My mind started to drift when two herbs took the first thirty minutes.  I started to chew weeds and paw the ground. We’d traveled ten meters and it was a loooooog way around the castle walls.  I regretted my lackey hadn’t brought a tent and provisions.  Plus, the soliloquy was in German, so I could only catch every other word:  good, tea, good again, etc.  I yearned for the Cliff Notes.  Time to break ranks and sprint for beer.  Got to the beer stand and put the golden-coldie to my lips just in time.

Next weekend is a much bigger, Medieval Festival, with even more food booths, knights in armor, complete with squires and horses, sword fights, and winsome ladies in flowing gowns.  Beer.  Wurst.  Sunshine.

If you miss that one (and why on earth should you?), I’m sure there are others coming up.  But, if they offer a tour around the castle walls, drag a keg with you.

Scenes From The Zweibrücken Rose Garden

I’m an outdoor kinda guy, but different from some of my friends who like to scamper up forbidding cliffs, fingernails worn clean by scaly rocks, or the odd folk who think nothing of sleeping outside on the hard ground, with only ticks and mosquitoes for company.  Nope.  Not for me.  The almighty didn’t offer hotels with room service and put money in my pocket so I could roll in the dirt with the vermin. I’m the outdoor guy who sits in the shade of a well kept garden, sipping a cool beer, watching the roses smile at the sun, while bees do their sworn duty.

Speaking of gardens and roses, garden season sneaked up like a warm, wet kiss.  I’m ready!  Sparkling days, sunny temperatures, trees and flowers bursting into bloom tell me it’s almost time for the annual Zweibrücken (Two Bridges) Rose and Garden Market.  Scroll down for the rest of the story.

A placid lake leads the way

Zweibrücken’s history dates back more than 650 years and even has a tie to the United States, having sent the Regiment Royal Deux-Pont to help us win our independence from Britain.  Today, one of Zweibrücken’s sister cities is Yorktown, Virginia, where the Royal Regiment fought in the eponymous battle that essentially put an end to British resolve.

Rose and Garden Market

From 09/06/2012 to 06/10/2012

Besides looking and drinking and eating, the rose garden offers all sorts of garden plants and herbs for sale, as well as garden implements, furniture, and decorations.  Expert advice lingers at every sales booth.  For more information, follow this link:

http://www.zweibruecken.de/index.dante?back_id=4077&parent_id=18529&node_id=18960&sid=CIEJDBDADDDCAKEGDBDDDDDHDIDDDIDIDIDHCODIDBDGDADDDJDDAKEMDBDDDDDHDIDDDIDJDADEDEDJDCDCEMAKHEHADBAKCO&aid=1131&dph=&cmd=showevent&kategory=&filtdate=

Also, Don’t miss the Town Market on Saturdays!  0800-1400

A total of 25 market stalls feature all sorts of edibles, under the slogan"Fresh from the region for the region." A large selection of cheeses, baked goods, fruits, vegetables, oils, jams, flowers and plants, fish, meat and meat products, fresh eggs and pasta, dairy products, honey, liqueurs and spirits delight the senses. To make the market experience even better, there is now a great tasting and gourmet zone.

Another thing to consider is a visit to Zweibrücken’s vast shopping complex, The Style Outlets (same name in German and English), featuring many famous and popular brands.

So, ok, fellow outdoor enthusiasts, go straight to the city that boasts over 60,000 roses.  Grab a bier and a wurst and sit in the shade in a most magnificent garden.  Enjoy the great outdoors in style. Buy a few plants for your garden, or pick up a stylish bottle of rose liquor.  No need to roam the jungle and sneak between the mongoose and the cobra to claim your share of nature’s bounty.  Zweibrücken offers my type of outdoor experience.

Make Some Rosemary Vinegar!

Snowy rosemary

Worth waiting for!

Herbs are my gardening delight.  They put a smile on my face, like a cold beer in the hot summer, or a hot date in the cold winter.  I especially like Rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) and grow a lot of it.   I like the aroma when I run my fingers through it.  Whoops, my mind drifted.  Stuck on the stuff about the cold winter.  Anyway, I just flat like the way a rosemary bush looks in my garden. Even snow covered, rosemary is beautifully verdant and redolent.  On those gray days of winter it perks the senses and carries the hope of spring. 

Hey, one more big, big reason I love rosemary.  For a thumb so brown it makes deadwood look lively, rosemary is a snap to grow, and propagate.   Containers.  Garden. Backyard.  Front yard.  As long as it’s got some sun and a smattering of water once in a while, it’s a happy, healthy plant.  The worst thing you can do to a rosemary plant is be too kind, and by that I mean over-watering.  If you’re container growing, let the soil get dry before you douse it.  And, for goodness sakes, don’t let your plant sit in water.

Just for convenience and because rosemary can take awhile to fill out and up, I plant mine from small, nursery grown plants.

I use rosemary for cooking.  A lot.  Maybe you do, too, but one flavor you may not have tried is rosemary-spiced vinegar.  Easy to make.

Take a gallon jug of apple cider vinegar (16 cups, 3.785 liters) and pour off 2 cups, or a little less than half a liter, saving it for another use.  Put two cups of pure water back in the gallon jug.  You’ve just reduced the acid content from 5% to around 4.3%.  I like my vinegar a bit tamer than 5% for salads.  Add a third cup of sugar (43 g) and stir until all the sugar dissolves.

Thoroughly wash and dry seven or eight healthy sprigs of fresh rosemary, the fresher the better.  When rosemary is cut and sits in the produce aisle, it loses some of its delightfully aromatic oil.  That and the price you pay for a few sprigs in a grocery store are two more reasons I like to grow my own.

Place the washed and dried sprigs of rosemary in the gallon jug of vinegar, water, and sugar solution.  Cap the jug and let it rest in a shady place for a couple of weeks.  Voilá!  You have just made more rosemary vinegar than you could use in a three star restaurant in a year.  I like to bottle it and give it as gifts.

Want a suggestion on how to use your newly made vinegar?  Read a previous post on making vinaigrette, but this time, substitute your homemade gourmet rosemary vinegar.  Yeah, yeah, you’ve just created a masterpiece.  Now wipe that smile off your face!