Czech Festival last Saturday

On Saturday, we went to Kewaunee to Heritage Farm, for a Czech festival. Since DH has Bohemian ancestry, we are very interested in the culture and cuisine, etc. of the Czech people.

Kewaunee was settled by many Czech immigrants back in the 1800's, so the area is rich in history.

We invited my dear friend, Nancy, to go with us, as she is of Bohemian descent also. She was so excited about going with us.

The first thing they had going on when we arrived, was a Kolache making demonstration. Which sounds boring, but it really was very interesting and fun. Nancy has an old recipe passed down through her family for Kolaches...and I have one that I got from an older Bohemian lady many years ago when she (Audrey, now in heaven) taught me how to make them.

Now we have another recipe to try. Nanc and I are going to get together and bake a bunch one of these days soon. We decided we are going to have our own, unofficial, Kolache bake-off. And my DH and her boyfriend are going to be the unfortunate judges. LOL. They are already shaking in their boots, because they don't want to get in 'trouble' if they choose the wrong Kolache.

For those of you that are wondering what a Kolache (pronouced Kole-ach) is, a Kolache is made out of a slightly sweet dough, that is formed into flat circles about 2 1/2" in diameter or so. After, the dough has raised, an depression is made in the center of the circle, and some special fruit or poppy seed or cheese filling is placed into the depression and then they are baked, and brushed with butter when they come out of the oven. They are yummy!!!! Not too sweet. This blog has a recipe that looks like it is pretty authentic, and pictures also of what they look like. I don't know why I didn't think to take some pictures!

The demonstration was 'hands on', which was fun. Another lady taught us how to use the same dough to form little bird 'rolls'.

There was a czech polka band there, and also a choir that sang traditional songs in czech. And some beautiful, colorful costumes, which in czech are called 'Kroje'. Each county had its own version of the kroje - and each village had some variations to the costume that identified it as coming from a certain area. More information about the kroje can be found here.


Here is a picture of a sweet little lady in her costume enjoying the czech band.

Heritage Farm had some charming displays in an old barn, an old cabin , and a few other buildings. Here are just a few pictures of some of the displays:
And of course, I had to get a couple of photos of the antique spinning wheel (over 250 yrs old) and the carding equipment for the wool. Since I don't spin yarn, I don't know the correct terminology for it...but since I knit...I loved seeing them!!!!

We spent a really nice relaxing and interesting afternoon. Had some chicken booyah for lunch...oh, do I love booyah!!!!

After we got back home, Nanc called her boyfriend and he came over and we threw together some sandwiches for 'dinner', and took them down to the river, and had a little picnic and did a 'little' fishing. (and I do mean little!) We were catching little, itty, bitty fish..oh, about 2-3 inches long or so...none of them were keepers. (which was fine, because I am not thrilled about cleaning fish. I'll do it, but I don't like it.)

DH does not enjoy fishing, but he likes to sit out there with me, and enjoy the outdoors. He decided to play with my camera and got some beautiful pictures of a beautiful sunset. These are just a couple:

It was so very relaxing to sit on the rocks and fish (even though the fish must have gone to bed for the night, because they sure weren't biting. :oO) and watch the sun go down, and experience the beautiful sunset...and to be with my sweet husband, and good friends.