MINEOLA, Iowa (KMTV) — The Mills County village of Mineola is home to a historic German settlement. Members of St. John Lutheran Church are keeping the community heritage alive with an annual German Heritage Dinner.
- St. John members make their own sausage for the event and it's seasoned with a secret, Schoening family recipe. The Schoenings are gathered in the back room of the church to mix in the seasonings and grind the pork.
- Paul Speck remembers when folks around the Mills County village still spoke a German dialect: "My sister could not speak English when she started school across the road here. And my brother and I, we knew a little bit more English, but at home we spoke all low German."
- Video shows church members of all ages gathered in the community hall, chopping pork and preparing it to make mettwurst, a German sausage made by many of their ancestors.
- More information: stjohnluthchurchmineola.org
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
This is literally how the sausage is made in Mineola, Iowa. I'm your southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter Katrina Markel and I am helping, trying to help, the folks at st. John's prepare for their annual German Heritage Dinner.
It all started in 1983 or 1883, depending on how you count it.
Paul Speck, church member: "We're trying to maintain some of the customs that were carried out by these old people."
Paul Speck remembers when folks around the Mills County village still spoke a German dialect: "My sister could not speak English when she started school across the road here. And my brother and I, we knew a little bit more English, but at home we spoke all low German."
The German Heritage Dinner has kept ancestral traditions alive for 40 years. Susan Carnahan helps lead the preparation of the Mettwurst sausage
Carnahan: "It takes a lot of people because we feed sometimes between 500-600 people."
Eleven-hundred pounds of pork: chopped, seasoned and ground. A very secret, very old Schoening family recipe
Nowadays the Schoenings toss the seasoning and pork into a cement mixer before grinding.
More recently, they've hired Frank Stoysich Meats to stuff the links.
Carnahan: "The older people were much better at it than the younger people."
On Saturday, they'll feed people from as far away as Des Moines.
Speck: "This is the only place they find this sausage that they love. And then they'll buy 5,6,7, 10 rings."
Dinner is served starting at 4:30 on Saturday. Rye bread, desserts and, of course, saurkraut are also on the menu.
With some tradition on the side.
In Mineola, I'm your southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter, Katrina Markel.
