Spreewald gherkins (German: Spreewälder Gurken or Spreewaldgurken) are a specialty

pickled cucumber A pickled cucumber (commonly known as a pickle in the United States and Canada and a gherkin in Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand) is a usually small or miniature cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, ...

from

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 square ...

, which are protected by the EU as a

Protected Geographical Indication Three European Union schemes of geographical indications and Traditional food, traditional specialties, known as protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), and traditional specialities guaranteed (TSG), promo ...

(PGI).

Overview

In the 1870s,

Theodor Fontane Theodor Fontane (; 30 December 1819 – 20 September 1898) was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist author. He published the first of his novels, for which he is best known tod ...

found that the ''Spreewaldgurke'' stood at the top of the agricultural products in Brandenburg's

Spreewald The Spree Forest (German: ''Spreewald'', ; Lower Sorbian: ''Błota'', i.e. 'the Swamps') is a large inland delta of the river Spree, and a historical cultural landscape located in the region of ( Lower) Lusatia, in the state of Brandenburg, G ...

: The secret of the Spreewald gherkins' special taste remained hidden, even to the

satirist This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires. Under Contemporary, 1930-1960 ...

Fontane. Certainly, the moist soil, rich in

humus In classical soil science, humus is the dark organic matter in soil that is formed by the decomposition of plant and animal matter. It is a kind of soil organic matter. It is rich in nutrients and retains moisture in the soil. Humus is the Lati ...

, and the climate in the Spreewald also contribute to the good growth in the cucumber fields. The actual reason for the taste, which is considered by connoisseurs to be delicate, is found in their processing. While the process of fermentation in large barrels formerly took several weeks, gherkins today are ready for sale after only one day of processing—whether for mustard gherkins (''Senfgurke''),

gherkins A pickled cucumber (commonly known as a pickle in the United States and Canada and a gherkin in Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand) is a usually small or miniature cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, or ...

or dill pickles (''Gewürzgurke'') or

s (''Salzgurke''). This enormous time saving is achieved by heating to with the addition of

caustic soda Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye and caustic soda, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaOH. It is a white solid ionic compound consisting of sodium cations and hydroxide anions . Sodium hydroxide is a highly caustic base and alkal ...

. The composition of the additional ingredients, however, still remains a well-guarded secret of the approximately twenty picklers. These taste-enhancing ingredients, such as

basil Basil (, ; ''Ocimum basilicum'' , also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" refers to the variety also ...

lemon balm Lemon balm (''Melissa officinalis'') is a perennial herbaceous plant in the mint family and native to south-central Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, Iran, and Central Asia, but now naturalised elsewhere. It grows to a maximum height of . The ...

grape leaves Grape leaves, the leaves of the grapevine plant, are used in the cuisines of a number of cultures. They may be obtained fresh, or preserved in jars or cans. The leaves are commonly rolled or stuffed with mixtures of meat and rice to produce ...

, cherry leaves or walnut leaves, give Spreewald gherkins their special sour, spicy taste. After the

reunification of Germany German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

in 1990, Spreewald gherkins were one of the few products from

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

which were still available without interruption. The gherkins also achieved fame in 2003 with the award-winning film ''

Good Bye Lenin! ''Good Bye Lenin!'' is a 2003 German tragicomedy film, directed by Wolfgang Becker. The cast includes Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, and Maria Simon. The story follows a family in East Germany (GDR); the mother (Sass) is de ...

'' by Wolfgang Becker. In this

tragicomedy Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious ...

Daniel Brühl Daniel César Martín Brühl González Domingo (; born 16 June 1978) is a Spanish-German actor and filmmaker. He received his first German Film Award for Best Actor for his roles in '' Das Weisse Rauschen (The White Sound)'' (2001), ''Nichts ...

has great difficulty obtaining the Spreewald gherkins that his sick mother (

Katrin Sass Katrin Sass (, for a time Katrin Saß) is a German actress. She became known internationally for playing the idealistic socialist mother Christiane Kerner in the 2003 tragicomedy '' Good Bye, Lenin!'' Biography She was born in Schwerin, in t ...

) dearly loved and which he absolutely needed to convince her of the continued existence of the (in her view) "ideal East German world". Meanwhile, the gherkins can again be obtained under their

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from oth ...

ed name ''Spreewälder Gurken'', which is a

(PGI) in the EU as of March 1999. In 2004, 50 businesses in the region announced their voluntary commitment to declare the Spreewald to be a genetic-engineering-free region.

Gherkin locations and the ''Gurkenradweg''

There are cucumber fields in all of the Spreewald, the largest part of which has been specially protected as the ''Biosphärenreservat Spreewald'' (Spreewald Biosphere Reserve) since 1990. The following locations have special offerings on and around the gherkin: * '' Golßen''. Spreewaldkonserve Golßen - Tour of a gherkin production site * '' Leipe''. Traditional vegetable growing * '' Lehde''. Farmhouse and gherkin museum * '' Schlepzig''. Agricultural history museum * '' Lübbenau/Spreewald''. Spreewaldmuseum The Gurken-Radweg (Gherkin Bicycle Path) is named in honor of the gherkin, because of its services. The logo of the tour shows a smiling gherkin on a bicycle. At the annual Spreewald-Marathon, which is held in the disciplines of running, bicycling, hiking, canoeing, and skating, the competition is started with, "''Auf die Gurke, fertig, los"'' (On the gherkin, steady, go!) instead of "''Auf die Plätze, fertig, los"'' (ready, steady, go!).

Sources

, ''

Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg ''Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg'' ("Ramblings through Brandenburg", "Rambles in Brandenburg" or "Walks through the March of Brandenburg") is a five-volume travelogue by the German writer Theodor Fontane, originally published in 1862&ndash ...

'' Volume 4. ''Spreeland''. Cited from the 1998 edition, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin.

References

{{portal bar, Germany, Food Pickles German cuisine German products with protected designation of origin Brandenburg Brandenburg cuisine Vegetable dishes Ostalgie