German Culture Site
	Francine McKenna BellaOnline's German Culture Editor

Advent, Christmas and Seasonal Holiday and Festive Recipe Links
In Germany a great deal of October, November, December and even January are devoted to the baking and producing of much loved traditional food and drink recipes for the different holiday celebrations. Here are a few for you to try out.

Authentic German Gingerbread Recipe
For anything from small ginger cookies, a Witches Cottage, Gingerbread Men, a Lantern which gives aroma as well as light, Christmas decorations or an Oktoberfest Heart, whatever you create with this "Lebkuchen", German Gingerbread, recipe it will always be delicious.

Black Elderberry Syrup Recipe
Elderberry syrup is an "all rounder", which is fun to forage, harvest and easily made. It makes great drinks for summer and winter, is delicious with dishes savory and sweet, and in Germany is used as a popular natural remedy for all types of ailments.

Easter in Germany - Traditional Recipes
The Thursday before Easter is 'Gruendonnerstag', Green Thursday, in Germany, with its custom that meals for the day should by tradition be 'green'. Green Bean Soup and Seven Herb Soup are two of the most popular with any left over herbs used for Eggs with Frankfurter Green Sauce on Easter Sunday

Federweisser, Zwiebelkuchen and Treberwurst
"Federweisser" might look like grape lemonade but it's young wine with a "kick" and short season, but its traditional harvest time accompaniments, a rich onion pie "Zwiebelkuchen" and "Treberwurst", sausages marinaded with grapes and fried, can be made and enjoyed at any time of the year.

German Drinks, Elderflower Syrup Recipe
Used for everything from a topping for ice cream to a 'cure' for arthritis in Germany, 'Elderflower Cordial', also known as Elderflower Syrup, is fragrant, refreshing, easy to make and comes from the elder shrub found in the wild almost everywhere.

German Pumpkin Potato Pancake
Pumpkin left over and no idea what to do with it, Pumpkin Potato Pancakes, traditional "Rieberkuchen" with pumpkin added, is a recipe which will use up extra pumpkin but also become a family favorite without it. Or if you simply want a different potato recipe how about Apple Potato Pancakes?

German Summer Drinks Recipes
Cooling drinks for those hot days during a German summer range from all types of colorful Fruit Punch and Radler to Apfelschorle and Cola-Schoppen. "Summer in a Glass" to suit not only all tastes but also sunless as well as sunny days.

German Wine and Vineyards
Grapes arrived in Germany via the conquering Romans, and ancient traditions surrounding hillside vineyards with their huge sundials, and their annual harvest, continue. But the German wine industry has changed and is returning to producing high quality wines, so Liebfraumilch is on the way out.

Germany and its Cheese Culture
From the North Sea to the Allgaeu, Germany's "foodie" favorite, Cheese, is produced in small mountainside farms and industrial dairies across the country. With hundreds of regional specialties and national varieties, ranging from mild to spicy, highly flavored and sometimes less than fragrant.

Germany´s Beer Culture, Fast Facts
Germany has its own ´Day of German Beer´, Tag des Deutschen Bieres, and is by tradition considered a food in Bavaria, but unofficially just enjoyed elsewhere. Here are some FAST FACTS about the age old beverage Mark Twain once described as ´as different as hens in a farmyard´, Germany´s Beer.

International Green Week in Berlin
January brings "International Green Week" the biggest fair for food, agriculture and horticulture in the world, which takes place in Berlin each year. It has been held there for over 80 years, a 'one-of-kind' culinary tour of the globe which has kept in step with the times.

Maibowle, Woodruff Punch A German Spring Favorite
Sweet Woodruff is the scent of early summer, and added to White Wine makes May Punch, Maibowle, a favorite May time beverage in Germany which joins the months other festivities and customs. Its season is brief but perfect for those first warm spring and summer evenings.

Ostalgie and Nostalgic East German Recipes
In the days of communist East Germany meals were planned around what was available that day, the queues were long and legendary, and a banana was seen on television but not in a shop. Appetizing and healthy food was served nevertheless, and here are some favorite recipes from the time.

Pumpkin Potato Pancake Recipe
Pumpkin left over and no idea what to do with it? Pumpkin Potato Pancakes, traditional Germany's "Rieberkuchen" with pumpkin added, will use up extra pumpkin but also become a family favorite without it. Or if you simply want a different autumn potato recipe how about Apple Potato Pancakes?

Rumtopf, Germany´s Fruit and Rum Pot, Recipe
The centuries old Rumtopf tradition, conserving soft seasonal fruit in sugar and rum during the summer and early autumn months, long ago led to the fruit and rum pot becoming an indispensible part of Christmastime celebrations, and a warming treat during Germany´s winter months.

Southern German Potato Salad Recipes
Potato salads from the country where they originated are just that little bit different, so as side dishes meals summer or winter look no further than these traditional recipes from Baden Wuerttemberg and Bavaria, two neighboring states in Southern Germany.

White Asparagus Season in Germany
"Spargelzeit", the springtime "white asparagus" madness which sweeps over Germany, a first symbol of spring. A brief season, "Kirsche rot, Spargel tot – When the cherries are red the asparagus is dead", beginning around mid-April ending June 24, the feast day of St. John the Baptist.