The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-10-15
WHERE PIE IS ALWAYS PLENTY.
A Necessity of Life to the Pennsyl-
Vania Dutch.

vania Dutch.
AT my first meal at the little
Pennsylvania Dutch inn over in
Berks county where l happened to
be one day last summer" said
New Yorker, II asked the rosy
checked, black eyed dining room girl
for another baked potato.
"'Te bodatiss iss ALL, said she
with a smile and shake of her
head.
"'All?' said /. All what?
"'All,' said the girl, impatiently,
and with a suspicion of contempt In
her tone. TIE bodatiss iss ALL
"A native with whiskers of
patriarch came to my rescue.
"'She means ter hain't no more
yit alretty,' said he. Ter ALL
Thus l learned that the Pennsyl-
vania Dutch never say that anything
is gone. If the bar runs out of
beer the beer is ALL When the
sauerkraut is empty the kraut is
ALL But there is one thing, at
least, that is never all That is
pie. IL some thrifty and hearty
Dutch citizen should ever ask for
pie and word should come back to
him that the pie was ALI the rela-
tions between him and his host
would at once become strained.
But / found that the necessity
for asking for pie seldom exists,
either at tavern or farmhouse. At
a Pennsylvania Dutch inn the waiter
doesn't disturb your tympanum
with:
'Minsrapplepire puddn?'
"She fetches in the pie at the
proper time and places it before you.
Not only pie, but whole pie; and
often not only one whole pie, but
three or four whole pies, all OF diff
ferent kinds, and each kind mas
terpiece of the pie making art. The
black eyed girl with the rosy cheeks
who knocked me out by telling me
that the potatoes were ALI placed
four uncut pies on the table soon
afterward. There was cheese GUS
tard, a gooseberry trat, sweet po-
tato custard, and snitz pie.
"Snitz is dried apples. Snitz
means the cutting of apples into
small pieces for drying, and snitz
parties, so l learned, were among
the social dissipations of the Penn
sylvania Dutch girls and boys at ap-
pie time. A favorite epicurian de-
light in rural Pennsylvania Dutch
dom is snitz and knep, combina-
tion of dried apples, fat pork and
dumplings, all cooked together.
This for supper might not at first
thought strike vegetarian as just
the thing to go to bed with if he
had set his mind on gentle dalliance
with the drowsy god, but it isn't
so much of an alder and abetter of
nightmare as it would seem, so l
was told by those who were brought
up to dare it. Yet, so they said,
two good sized dishes of it wasn't
any too little for one goou man to
eat, especially if he irrigated it, as
is somewhat the wont, with tumb-
Ter or two of last years cider.
LAS to pie again, no matter how
many pies there may be on the table,
every guest is expected to help him
self to each, as his inclination and
capacity permit him. There is al
ways enough.
Il learned about some more
pleasing Pennsylvania Dutch things
while l was in Berks county. Sch
mierkase has all seasons for it's own
with them, but it is only in the fall
that sauerkraut and lodwaerrick get
their work in. In the fall, too,
metzelsup is on the circuit, and
many rise up and clutch it. Then,
likewise to rolachizz and pahnhoss
make popular appeal.
'Lodwaerrick is apples and cider
boiled together until there is no
more cider left and the apples have
become savory pulp the color of
mahogany bureau. In English the
result is called apple butter. Your
grocer sells you what bears the
brand of apple butter. Maybe that's
what it is, but you will never think
so again after eating lodwaerrick.
Every we'll regulated Pennsylva-
mia Dutch farmer kills at least two
fat pigs each fall for his own family
use. The butchering is a great af-
fair and neighbor here and there
will join in and help. When the hogs
are killed, dressed and cut up GER
tain portions are laid aside for those
who helped in the killing and for
gifts to poor widows in the neigh
borhood. This is distributed with
liberal hand and is called the
metzelsup. The farmer who for
gets the metzelsup is looked upon
as one for whom perdition yawns.
'If there is a family in Berks
county that doesn't put down a bar
rel of sauerkraut in the fall, then
that family must have Just moved in
from some distant part of the coun-
try. Every one of the Pennsylvania
Dutch counties makes great quanti-
ties of sauerkraut every fall, but
Berks county claims to put down
as much as any three of the others.
From the middle of October un-
til the same time in Novemher 40