Heeeyho Readers! Bringing something about our little community!
I'm kinda late for the Easter party!
It's been a week since the photos from the Easter fair are stored on my phone. At first I thought the quality was not worth a post – had I known about the fair I would have taken the DSLR. {Do'h}. Second, the beer, the wonderful rievelsback, and the rest of the German delicatessen maintained me entertained. For good! Taking photos became an ordeal after filling my belly with every goodie that crossed my path.
However, the recognition that I've written more about the world than our own community overcame the fearmongering about the photos, thus I opted to post anyways.
The Easter fair
Our ranch is located nearby the teeny mountain-top 6000-people town called Morro Redondo (Brazil). The town is atop a rounded hill, hence the name Morro = hill and Redondo = rounded. {Go figure xD} This region is composed of German, Portuguese, and Italian communities, descendants of European settlers from the 19th century. In Morro Redondo, the German influence is particularly evident in the culinary, music, accent, family names, etc.
The Easter fair (III Handicraft and Colonial Products Fair) finally happened again after two years of Covid-19.
Getting to the fair
Producers showcased their handcrafts on various stalls arranged around the central plaza. There were handmade wines, grape juice, desserts, flowers, Brazilian cachaça (liquor).
handcrafts
My weakness are the desserts. Thank God I'm skinny as a lamp post allowing me to abuse more than I should. This producer named João de Barro caught my attention — and everyone else's apparently — with their famous desserts: various jams, biscuits, cakes, yummies and more yummies.
jams, honey, biscuits and cakes
Their most famous dessert is called Doce de Leite. To summarize, it's some sort of caramelized milk that has the consistency of a soft peanut butter and a brown color. Basically you have to simmer milk and sugar for endless hours and hope for the best. I prefer to buy it instead. This time I picked a version with coffee. Best sweet ever!
different doces de leite
The city museum showcased some old items used to produce these amazing sweets back in the days. There was this awesome hand-riveted copper pan (lacking the proper name here); I tried to capture the details of the joint between the sides and the bottom, but failed miserably.
copper pan
And also this cool-looking machine that does cool-looking machined stuff. If anybody has a clue of what this does, please leave a comment. It resembles a small scale hand-operated lathe.
machine
Osterbaum
I'm sure my German friends on Hive are able to explain this tradition better than me. I scooped the web in search of a good historical explanation to the Easter tree, but found none in English. What I found, in Portuguese, is that the parched tree represents the death of Jesus Christ while the eggs represent life, the resurrection. Either way, the colorful eggs are a great distraction for the kids.
little cousin hanging eggs on the tree
Why are bunnies the symbol of Easter? No idea. But the local farmer's cooperative brought different species of bunnies to showcase. I don't like animals in cages, but...
Little pointy-eared buddy
Looks like the killer bunny from Monty Python
The food
Finally, to what matters, the food! I don't take pictures while eating mainly because hunger is so ferocious that there's no time. I tried, though. Dad and I instigated the appetite with a dose of good handmade beer. Then, a portion of pork barbecue.
fuel
pork barbecue
The queue for the rievelsback was massive, but we managed to get some. Rievelsback is a sort of grated potato dumpling. The first time I ate this dish was in Germany back in 2013, then again in Poland during SF3. It brought many memories when I saw the same dish in our local German community.
rievelsback
pure potato and barley juice
It felt so relieving to see people laughing and enjoying themselves again. The sense of communion, fraternity, and love. It's when we lose what's absolutely precious that we value what once was ordinary. The essence of this post goes beyond showing my community and our mores, but to inspire all of you to participate in your local events, because we never know when circumstances might turn upside down.
In the end, Dad and I stuffed ourselves to the point of going back home for some relieving tea. Best weekend ever!
I hope you have enjoyed this post.
Peace.
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~Love ya all,
Disclaimer: The author of this post is a convict broke backpacker, who has travelled more than 10.000 km hitchhiking and more than 5.000 km cycling. Following him may cause severe problems of wanderlust and inquietud. You've been warned.
