"Who's the Pretzel Maker?"

we took a little trip to Lititz, and visited the Sturgis Pretzel Bakery on Wednesday.

I love "the making of things"...the order, the production...the A. B. C. steps. It gives me ideas and inspiration for my felt making. so, I really liked this little tour, in this historic house, with it's old brick walls, on Main Street in Lititz. I liked the assembly line table, the unique wooden dough drying bins, how they created their own dough meading system, the drying racks, and learning about how they progressed to more complicated and faster equipment.

It was interesting to know that the shape of the pretzel has a lot of symbolism. (from the Sturgis website:)
"Italian monks used scraps of dough to form the shape of children’s arms in prayer, with three holes to represent the Christian Trinity. They were called “pretiola” in Latin or “little reward” and were given to children who learned their bible verses and prayers."

I enjoyed learning about how the mistake of recooking pretzels left in the oven overnight, resulted in the hard pretzel.

and it was a pleasant relief to know that pretzels are dairy and egg free, so Miss Mimi and I could eat them. Next time, I'll sample more of their flavored varieties.
It was a nice little tour, for a mere $3. and you can take home a hot little soft pretzel ball for $1. xx

And how an hour after I blogged about this...we met the great, great, great Grandson of Julius Sturgis himself:

After writing the nicely informative blog above, I went downstairs with the kids to work on the studio area. I had just finished painting a wall (with baby on hip no less)! when I realized (with a bad cold) that there was a pretty intense burning smell in the room, and the smell was everywhere. Oh no! I detached the light from the balistier that lines the wall. Normally we don't keep this bulb attached as it flashes sometimes, but I had reattached the bulb just this once to light the wall so I could see my painting.
After I detached the bulb a crackling sound remained. In the wall!
So 911 got a call from Maggie French, and soon after, into the house, came numerous fireman. Three times the size of regular humans in all their gear. and yes, it was very exciting because at 8:30pm, to my quiet little street, they also brought the roaring engine (with lights flashing)! The kids and I sat on the glider on the porch in the dark, watching the lights of the engine (very, very exciting.)
Walkie talkies were in use (to the delight of Max) as were heat sensitive hand-held devices. the words "there's a hot spot in the wall" were declared and more fireman poured in. The wall had gotten to 120 degrees and they were able to refrain from ripping the wall apart. We were instructed to have an electrician replace the balistier.
what does this have to do with pretzel making? well a fireman noticed Max's pretzel certificate in the living room. and he says, "Who's the pretzel maker? I've seen a lot of those certificates growing up. Julius Sturgis was my great, great, great Grandfather. I'm Jake Bowman."
and so Max met a real Sturgis. In his very own living room. and I got to take the picture and add it to my Sturgis Pretzel blog the very same night:)