In Touch with Prairie Living November 1998 By Michael M. Miller Germans from Russia Heritage Collection North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo

The Germans from Russia Heritage of Manitoba. This dynamic video writing it.” Here one finds delightful Collection at the NDSU Libraries in documentary is available by contacting recipes such as Pfeffernüsse, Borscht/ Fargo reaches out to prairie families PPTV at 1-800-359-6900. Kraut Suppe, and Schupf Noodla. GRHC and former Dakotans. In various ways, The Germans from Russia Heritage wishes to thank Dr. William and Thelma it affirms the heritage of the Germans Collection is pleased to announce the Baird Wiest, Portland, OR, for sharing from Russia is an important part of the completion of the forthcoming book, this wonderful recipe book. northern plains culture. Homeland Book of the Bessarabian The various Germans from Russia The NDSU Libraries and Prairie Germans by Albert Kern. The book groups prepare German dishes quite Public Television are collaborating on a includes many photographs and differently from the way they are made groundbreaking one-hour documentary histories of the former Bessarabian in Germany. They also adopted and made on the Germans from Russia. The German villages. The book will be of uniquely their own Russian, Ukrainian, documentary explores the history and much interest to many Dakotans who Polish, and Romanian dishes. culture of this unique ethnic group. have ancestral roots to these villages. May I encourage readers to inform Filming will include the breathtaking This is one of the most comprehensive me about published cookbooks featuring footage in the former German villages research histories ever published in the ethnic German-Russian recipes and and the landscape in southern Ukraine. English language on the Bessarabian related heritage. We are also very The program will premiere on PPTV in Germans. Persons wishing to secure interested in securing German-Russian early 1999. the book, can contact GRHC. related family histories published. We PPTV videographers joined the The cookbook, Sei Unser Gast: Be wish to add these publications to GRHC. Journey to the Homeland Tours to Our Guest: A Collection of German- For further information about the Odessa, Ukraine in 1996, 1997 and 1998 Russian Recipes continues to be well collection, the new Bessarabian German for extensive filming. They traveled received. Food traditions are among book, the recipe books, the future Germans widely in North Dakota, to South Dakota our most enduring folkways. The from Russia television documentary, and Lincoln, Nebraska for additional younger generation may never learn PPTV’s new Mennonite documentary, footage. Ron Vossler, University of to speak the German dialect of their the Journey to the Homeland Tour to North Dakota and a Wishek, N.D. ancestors, but being able to prepare Odessa, Ukraine for May 18-31, 1999 native, is the documentary scriptwriter. favorite dishes from the Old Country and German-Russian heritage, contact The limited-edition version of the is often another matter. Documenting Michael M. Miller, NDSU Libraries, PO videotape will contain special footage German-Russian cuisine and foodways Box 5599, Fargo, ND 58105-5599 (Tel: not seen in the one-hour documentary. so present and future generations can 701-231-8416; E-mail: Michael.Miller@ Persons need to contact PPTV before enjoy their unique culinary heritage ndsu.edu; GRHC website: http://library. 1 January 1999, to secure this special was the purpose behind the cookbook ndsu.edu/grhc). videotape. For further information, produced by the North Star Chapter contact Prairie Public Television, in Minneapolis-St. Paul area of the November 1998 column for North PO Box 3240, Fargo, ND 58108- American Historical Society of Dakota and South Dakota newspapers. 3240 Tel: 1-800-359-6900. Watch for Germans from Russia. Learn how to announcements in newspapers for the make Kuchen, Borscht, Plachinta, premiere dates this winter. Halupsie and many other foods. In October, PPTV premiered the GRHC has published Some new documentary, Mennonites of Wonderful Old Time Recipes from Manitoba. Sixty thousand Mennonites Our Mothers and Grandmothers. From now live on a fertile band of land the Forward by Thelma Bartel Wiest hugging the Canadian American border. writes: “This recipe book was compiled Their ancestors immigrated from the in order to preserve the many old family steppes of South Russia (today Ukraine) recipes that are endangered, but which to the prairies of Manitoba sharing a are still alive in the memories of many similar history of the Dakota Germans family members and, in some case, also from Russia. In the summer of 1874, a in their kitchens. If, a hundred years German speaking group of farmers from from now, some curious, bright-eyed Russia began to flow into the virgin teenager, rummaging through an old prairie of southern Manitoba. Their trunk discovers this book, I hope she dynamic story is shared in Mennonites enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed