Cow Lotte meets Stromberger Pflaume in NRW
With the Stromberg plum, Lotte the cow and peaceful snacks, Germany's most populous federal state is once again living up to its reputation for being particularly diverse, colorful and humorous.
If you enter Stromberg into the Internet search engine, you will first land on the German, multi-award-winning comedy television series in which actor Christoph Maria Herbst plays the unpleasant official character Bernd Stromberg. Next comes an entry about a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg. The castle village of Stromberg near Oelde in Münster, on the other hand, is something for real connoisseurs. The same applies to the plum that grows there.
Marion Stemich wants to change that. She belongs to the Schutzgemeinschaft Stromberger Pflaume e.V., a non-profit association dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the traditional plum variety. Twelve years ago, the European Commission added the Stromberger Pflaume to the list of protected designations of origin (PDO). In 2015, a 10.9 km long plum trail in the Warendorf district was even dedicated to it. “Our goal is to preserve the Stromberg plum as a valuable foodstuff and to strengthen its importance for the region,” says Marion Stemich, who will be offering plum jam, plum chutney, as well as more unusual creations such as plum mustard, plum ketchup and plum balsamic vinegar from her Burgfrucht brand at Grüne Woche. The rum liqueur Plum & Rum, which also contains the Stromberg plum from Pflaumenhof Stemich, was named the best rum liqueur in the world at the World Liqueur Awards 2024 in the UK (5.2/120).
Kai Pflaume or Bernd Stromberg?
That's a lot of competition for the Stromberger Pflaume, who also fights for attention both inside and outside Grüne Woche. Marion Stemich reveals that they have already considered inviting presenter Kai Pflaume as a marketing gag when the whole of Burgdorf is bathed in purple every year on the second weekend in September for the Stromberg Plum Festival. So far, this has not worked out. Perhaps the people of Stromberg would rather try Christoph Maria Herbst. After all, he's also from NRW.
Cream whipping competition with Lotte the cow
On Thursday, Stromberg's Plum Queen Nina I. Sunderkemper provided information about the Stromberg plum on the stage in the North Rhine-Westphalia Hall. The interactive stage program had numerous highlights, including Lotte the cow, who competed with visitors to Grüne Woche in a cream whipping competition. Over the course of the week, she lost her title as undefeated world champion in hand-cream whipping to Frederick from Dresden.
Opposite the stage is the Foodhub NRW e. V., where various players from the agricultural and food industry present future-oriented solutions (5.2/144). Part of the association is Xoii - A Pieceful Bite, which specializes in the production of tofu with organic soybeans from Germany and Europe with products such as Tofu-Lauchvergnügen, Tofu-sauer-macht-lustig and Mushroom-Tofu-Tango. At the Biological Station of the Rhein-Sieg district, there are natural treasures to see under the microscope, a tree quiz and information about the spadefoot and green toad (5.2/131).
