Episode Details

Episode 58: German Roots, American Soil (Part 1)

Erika’s Old-World Childhood, Multi-Gen Living, Gardening, Canning, and the Roots She’s Passing Down

This week, Mark and Rachel sit down with a very special guest: Erika — Rachel’s mom and CJ’s grandma (Oma). Erika grew up in a small village in southwest Germany where almost everything was homegrown, home-baked, home-butchered, and home-preserved. In this warm, funny, and deeply nostalgic episode, she shares those old-world traditions and the ways they’ve carried into her modern life in Pennsylvania — including multi-generational living, gardening with CJ, preserving food, and creating a home built around family and service.

In this episode we talk about:

Growing up in southwest Germany

Life in the village of Atmohausen where everyone knew everyone — sometimes before you got home.

90% homegrown food: milk from the neighborhood milk house, sourdough from the village oven, vegetables from the garden, meat from family and neighbors.

Why food was precious after WWII and how the Cold War years shaped frugal, no-waste habits.

Sundays as true family days: stores closed, big hikes, and exploring the woods with her dad.

Multi-generational households — then and now

Living with grandparents, parents, and kids together under one roof, each with their own kitchen and living space.

How everyone pitched in: babysitting, nursing someone back to health, sharing meals, combining resources.

How Rachel and Mark have recreated that model today with their own multi-generational home — CJ upstairs, Oma and Opa downstairs, one shared laundry room, and lots of shared life.

Village camping, Red Cross trips & the ‘thunder log’

Summer trips with 50 village kids in old military tents with no floors.

Breakfast choices: jelly bread, liverwurst, or “go without.”

Downpours, floating air mattresses, and digging trenches in the middle of the night.

The infamous story of Erika’s dad being carried, asleep on his cot, into the lake at dawn — and calmly walking it back out.

Old-world butchering and food traditions

Helping her butcher uncle, learning nose-to-tail principles the old German way.

Why pig tails, cheeks, and snouts were delicacies — and why cow tongue is still one of her favorites.

School lunches of liverwurst and pickles on homemade bread and trading with “city kids” for factory-made white bread.

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