To The Man-Cave!

by Celia Hayes

We took the opportunity, this last rainy weekend, for a quick jaunt through Bussey's Flea Market, thinking that with the rain and the cold, that there might be bargains to be found, and so there were. Bussey's is a half-acre ramble of sheds and covered tables, on IH-35 North; if you get off at Wiederstein, just trundle along the access road until you see the giant concrete armadillo. This is possibly the only armadillo in Texas which is not dead in the middle of the road, but it should be easy enough to recognize. Anyway, we are terribly fond of Bussey's as many of the vendors are permanent fixtures. Lamentably, a fair number of them know what they have and exactly how much to charge for it: the bargains are most…

Wursfest, New Braunfels, Texas

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Wurstfest is a unique celebration rich in German culture and full of Texas fun located in beautiful New Braunfels, Texas! Enjoy good fun, food, special events and the finest in Alpine and Bavarian Style Entertainment. During the 10-day festival, you'll find a variety of entertainment, food and fun on the Wurstfest Grounds in Landa Park and many special events throughout New Braunfels and Comal County. The following information is provided to help answer the many questions our visitors have.

When is Wurstfest? Wurstfest always starts on the Friday before the first Monday in November.

2011: November 4th - 13th
2012: November 2nd - 11th
2013:…

The Movie Guessing Game

By Celia Hayes

This was an amusement thought up by the Queen of the Red Hats group – which is not officially a Red Hats' group, but is really just a group of ladies of a certain age, who call themselves the Cherry Bonnets, and think of themselves as holding up the friendly, slightly exhibitionistic, somewhat anarchic social end of what the Red Hatters used to be. We put on red hats and purple shirts (in my daughter's case, since she is well under the cut-off age of 50, a pink hat and a lavender shirt) and meet once a month for dinner, a themed gift exchange and lively conversation at a chosen restaurant  . . .  this differentiates us from the Shiners and similarly long-term male organizations, in that we do it for the…

Fun with Fruit Brewing Wine

Like many of these things that I am reluctant to do at first, but get talked into and eventually start having fun – getting into the home-brewing and cheese-making was my daughter's idea. Many months ago, I had noticed that storefront location in a local strip mall was now taken up by an enterprise called Home Brew Party. I was unwary enough to mention this to my daughter. At the next opportunity, she dragged me inside  . . .  and was promptly carried away by the possibilities of making home-brewed beer and wine.

A portion of one of her intermittently ginormous but infrequent paychecks went towards buying two equipment kits – one for wine, one for beer: a couple of…

The Home-Brew Gateway Element

by Celia Hayes

So, my daughter and I have been experimenting with a lot of do-it-yourself food, lately;  Breads and cheese, beer and wine, mostly. It's part of our family culture, or it might be in our DNA, an ancestral proclivity to have a go at something, since it really can't be all that hard. Well, some things are a bit tricky, and require a lot of instruction and experience: fine cabinet-making, for instance. And installing HVAC systems. And automobile maintenance – just not interested in that. But we have found that we have had pretty good results with many of our own D-I-Y projects, especially the food-based ones. What's so complicated about following a recipe, and making a food-product for the household just…

New Braunfels, Texas

Oh gosh - since Halloween was just this last weekend, then it means that New Braunfels' annual celebration of sausage and meat-onna-stick in every form imaginable and sudsy, tasty adult beverages must be in full swing. Landa Park, all this week until Sunday. Just drive north on IH-35, exit at New Braunfels and look for the lederhosen, dirndls and very strange hats. Seriously, follow them to Landa Park, to the permanent Wurstfest grounds by the old municipal waterworks, where Texas and Germany collide head-on, with fascinating and flavorful results.

Image a German beer garden blended with a regional mid-west county fair, lightly sprinkled…

The Best of Times, the Wurst of Times

 So, once the Halloween decorations were sorted out and put away, we could think of nothing better to do than to drive up to New Braunfels on Sunday morning to join in the Wurstfest 2009 celebration. What better place, and what better day is there to celebrate suds, sausage and song than in a small town, in a park by a cool green river, and on one of those gloriously cool autumn days? Music and revelry, carnival rides for the kids, and plentiful seating, under the pecan trees, or in the big and little tents, or the main hall.

Wurstfest is one of those gloriously scrambled ethnic holidays that can only happen in the US – and possibly only in Texas. For sure, it might be…